Ten years ago, your mobile phone was incredibly bad - and you didn't even know it.... We have followed the development for 10 years - here we reminisce a bit about the iPhone 5 and the LG Nexus.
Caption: Back then - here is a picture from when we had recently started Green Phones.
Greenphones was founded in Tvedestrand in 2012 by Tor Erik Håland and Tor Ingvald Kilen.
The idea was, then as now, to buy used mobiles, repair them and sell them. We had a strong interest in reusing mobile phones, and saw the opportunity to start a business that could make a positive contribution, both to the local environment and to the environment and sustainability.
During the 10 years, we have had thousands of satisfied customers who have bought or pledged mobile phones with us. The customer list includes both private individuals and companies, such as banks, universities and municipalities. Although we are growing, it has been important to ensure good and personal customer service.
Part of that customer service is our interest in developments in the field. We are genuinely interested in all the new components, circuits, cameras and how we can work to make old mobiles at least as good as new ones.
Small supercomputers - then and now.
Development is moving so fast that it can be difficult to keep up. It's easy to forget that smartphones and tablets were almost sci-fi in 2012.
In 2012, less than half of the world's population had a smartphone - today the figure is 80%.
And in Norway almost everyone has access to a smartphone in 2020: 96% according to Statistics Norway.
In 2012, 680 million units were sold.
In 2020, the figure nearly doubled - 1379 million phones were sold.
Do you have a phone you don't use? Sell it to us - we give you the best price on the market. Read more here.
The top models of 2012
And our small supercomputers have gained a completely different performance and power than 10 years ago.
Here is a list of the most popular smartphones of 2012:
- Apple iPhone 4S
- Samsung Galaxy S III
- Motorola Droid Razr Maxx HD
- HTC One X+
- Nokia Lumia 920
- Google/LG Nexus
Do you feel old now?
GreenPhone founder Tor Ingvald talks about the phone he used in 2012:
I had an Apple iPhone 4. At the time it was a huge phone, which felt quite exclusive with the glass back and the metal edge around it. But I found out that it was expensive to get this fixed. And then I realized that it wasn't just me who broke these phones, and saw that the phones were getting more and more expensive to buy new ones - so Tor Erik and I decided to start GreenPhones.
I remember that the iPhone I had then had a very good camera - at the time - and was the first with a flash. It was also possible to run several apps in the background! Today, it would be difficult to use if you were going to do more than make calls and send messages. Apps like banking, social media and so on, which one uses several times a day today would not work because of the security.
