The Most Popular Mobile Phones of the Last 15 Years

The last 15 years have witnessed a veritable explosion in mobile technology innovation. Perhaps most notably, the mobile phone went from a bulky, inconvenient device (think Zack Morris) to a pocket computer with endless capabilities. Following are 20 of the most popular and top-selling phones throughout this era.

1) Nokia 3210

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When the 3210 was released in 1999 it was considered one of the most high-tech phones available. Boasting brand new T9 text prediction and a sleek internal antenna, the 3210 flew off the shelves, selling over 160 million units worldwide. Nokia marketed this phone primarily to a younger audience by including customizable ring tones and three original games. For its innovative features and slim appearance, the 3210 is perhaps the most popular phone of all time.

2) Nokia 3310

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The 3310 was Nokia’s follow up to the wildly popular 3210. Released in 2000, the 3310 came stocked with many new features and soon became a massive success in its own right. The phone sold over 126 million units, largely due to its (at the time) bleeding edge mobile software, which included such features as picture messaging, a picture editor and automatic keypad locking. The phone’s slim design closely resembled its 3210 predecessor.

3) Motorola RAZR

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When Motorola introduced the RAZR in late 2004, the world stood in awe of its incredibly slender design and robust feature package. Over the course of the next several years, the fashionable RAZR sold over 100 million units, making it the most popular flip-style mobile phone ever released. The phone owes the majority of its success to its paper-thin, “secret agent” appearance. For as slim as the RAZR was, it was also one of the most capable phones of its time, coming stocked with a high-quality digital camera, V CAST music, mobile video, and more.

4) LG Chocolate

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The LG Chocolate was an extremely popular MP3 player/mobile phone backed by one of the most creative advertising campaigns in mobile phone history. LG released the Chocolate in several colors: brown (the Chocolate), white (the White Chocolate), red (the Strawberry Chocolate), and green (the Mint Chocolate). Television commercials for the phone played off the names, featuring the phones emerging from liquid chocolate or being molded from crushed strawberries. These commercials made the phone seem luscious and desirable, but LG didn’t stop there. Many of the phones came scented with chocolate, strawberry or mint, associating your actual phone with the commercials. This creative approach and the phone’s capability and slider design helped the Chocolate sell over 15 million units, earning it a spot in the top 5 most popular phones ever.

5) Blackberry Pearl

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Until the release of the Pearl in 2006, Blackberry was primarily used by businessmen and professionals who needed the extra capability that the phone’s platform offered. The release of the Pearl represented the first Blackberry geared toward the general public, and the device became a huge hit. Unlike its strictly-business predecessors, the Pearl was the first Blackberry to feature a digital camera, video support and MP3 player. The Pearl also featured an attractive glowing white trackball for navigation (the “pearl”). The phone became very popular among people in all age groups, selling over 10 million units.

6) LG Cookie

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The LG Cookie was a popular touch-screen phone priced for the budget shopper. By omitting expensive high-end features such as GPS, touch zoom and mobile internet, the Cookie became a sleek device that sold at a low sticker price. With the introduction of the Cookie, nearly anyone could afford a touch-screen phone with support for video playback and MP3 music. This brilliant strategy from LG made the phone very successful, selling just over 10 million units.

7) Nokia 5310 XpressMusic

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The Nokia 5310 XpressMusic measured less than a centimeter thick and came stocked with a 2 megapixel digital camera. The phone was one of the only phones to come so thin – the  body measures just 9.9 millimeters. The super-thin design was augmented with PDA capability, including an array of applications such as a calendar, to-do list, notes, and more. The entire phone could be synced with any computer using Bluetooth. The phone has sold over 10 million units since its release in late 2007.

Samsung SGH-D500

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Winner of the 3GSM “Worlds Best Cell Phone” award in 2005, the D500 was a slim slider-phone with a solid feature load that almost invariably pleased its customers.  The phone was successful largely due to its big, vibrant screen, brilliant video and sound quality, and smooth sliding action.  The phone also included powerful flash capability, which was a big advancement for the time.  The D500 enjoyed great sales numbers, selling over 10 million units in total.

9) Samsung S5230

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Released in May of 2009, the S5230 was a touch-screen mobile device marketed to the entry-level smartphone market. Although the phone lacked WiFi capability, it featured a brilliant color display, full multimedia capability and a motion sensor for various gaming purposes. The phone came stocked with a 3.2 megapixel camera, video recording capability and software for editing photographs. Since its release, the S5230 has sold over 10 million units.

10) LG Shine

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The LG Shine was a popular slider-style phone in LG’s “Black Label” line. The phone’s case is made of stainless steel, presenting a very professional and high class appearance. The Shine won two separate awards for its design in 2007: The Red Dot Design award and the Shiny Award for design. The phone had a decent feature load and a large, full color display. Having sold over 8 million units, the Shine earns a spot in the 10 most popular phones ever.

11) Nokia N95

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The Nokia N95 was a highly capable two-way sliding smart-phone from Nokia’s N Series. The phone was so popular largely due to its high-tech features, including GPS, a 5 megapixel digital camera, video conferencing and recording, wireless Internet, an office suite, Flash support, and a fully functional web browser. The phone appealed to busy professionals who needed the functionality that smart-phones offered and has sold 7 million units since its 2007 release.

12) Apple iPhone

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Containing over 200 unique patents, the iPhone was packed with innovation that has since changed the way smart-phones are made and used. Ambient light sensors, thousands of available apps and a developer kit for the creation of new apps has made the iPhone a versatile phone that is as unique as the individual owning it. The iPhone also features a large and interactive touch-screen, which several companies have since tried to emulate. For its functionality and sharp appearance, the iPhone has enjoyed over 6.1 million sales since its release in 2007.

13) Nokia N-Gage

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Merging both mobile phone and mobile gaming, the Nokia N-Gage was a smashing success among young cell phone owners. Fifty-eight games in total were released for the N-Gage system, but, despite its success, it eventually lost out to the Game Boy Advance. Some owners were not happy with the layout of the N-Gage’s buttons, claiming they were better suited for the phone and not for gaming. Nokia eventually moved its N-Gage gaming platform over to its line of smartphones and the N-Gage phone was put out of production. The phone ultimately sold over 3 million units, a successful number for such an innovative device.

14) HTC Touch

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The HTC Touch was a touch screen pocket PC powered by Windows Mobile 6. The phone featured a suite of applications including video and photo viewers, mobile Internet and more. Perhaps most notably, the Touch featured the ability to distinguish between a stylus and a person’s finger, offering full capability of many applications without the need for a device. This was a major selling point for the phone, which sold over 2 million units worldwide since its release in 2007.

15) LG Viewty

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Though it has not yet been released in the USA, the LG Viewty is taking Europe by storm, selling over 2 million units since its June 2009 release. The phone is a multimedia powerhouse, featuring a 5.0 megapixel camera with image stabilization, autofocus, flash, and video recording capability. In addition, the phone features DivX Certified video playback, mobile web browsing, and document viewers for most Microsoft files. A USA release date of the Viewty has not yet been declared.

16) Palm Centro

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In August of 2008, the Palm Centro enjoyed a spot as the second most popular smartphone in the US, selling over 2 million units. Available on Sprint, AT&T or Verizon, the smartphone was available to a huge number of people, which certainly contributed to its great success. The phone featured touch screen navigation and a full QWERTY keyboard for ease of use while emailing, composing documents or texting. The Centro is one of the last Palm devices to make use of the Palm OS operating system (discontinued in favor of the new webOS, featured in Palm’s latest device, the Pre).

17) LG Voyager

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The LG Voyager was a highly capable multimedia smartphone released in late 2007. Featuring an onscreen virtual keyboard and access to Verizon’s V CAST service, the phone included the ability to play movies, TV shows, music, and games. The Voyager was constructed as a sideways flip phone, which gave the user access to a full QWERTY keyboard and various multimedia applications. The smartphone market witnessed an explosion in 2008-2009, and the Voyager has since been preceded by the LG enV Touch. Since its release, the Voyager has seen 1.3 million sales.

18) T-Mobile myTouch 3G

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Also known as the HTC Magic, the myTouch 3G was the first smartphone to run on Google’s Android operating system. The phone has been very successful, due in large part to its full integration with Google. The myTouch features total synchronization and easy access of the user’s GMail, Google Calendar, Google Documents, Google Maps, and more. Aside from Google-specific applications, many third party developers have released innovative applications for the myTouch, making the phone’s contents completely customizable. The myTouch has sold over 1 million units since its release in 2009.

19) Motorola Q

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Selling over 1 million units since its release in 2006, the Q was Motorola’s follow-up to its incredibly popular RAZR phone (number 3 on this list). The Q was slim, sleek and ran Windows Mobile 5.0 for smartphones. Boasting a big, bright 320×240 screen, the phone featured much of the same capability as many of the other smartphones of that time, including the Blackberry. One major criticism of the Q was that it lacked touch-screen support, yet, despite this seemingly big omission, the Q went on to become one of the highest selling  mobile phones of all time.

20) Nokia 8801

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The 8801 was a top of the line slide-phone in its 2005 heyday, featuring many luxuries that other phones of the time lacked. Perhaps the most intriguing aspect to the 8801 was its state-of-the-art sliding mechanism, which used the same ball-bearings as those used in high performance cars. The 8801 also featured a 3D graphics engine for enhanced screen resolution and image quality, a rare find in the 2005 cell phone world. Because of its solid yet beautiful construction and feature-rich engine, the 8801 clocks in as the 20th best selling phone of all time, enjoying over 1 million sales worldwide.