The mobile phone industry today is unrecognisable from the mobile phone industry 20 years ago. The growth of mobile technology has been phenomenal, from the original lunchbox-sized phones of the 1980s to the stunningly slim and futuristic designs produced by dozens of manufacturers around the world. One of the most iconic designs of recent years has been the Motorola phone RAZR. The sleek lines would have been unthinkable in years gone by: the computer power held by a single handset now would have required a room full of computers in the early eighties.

It is not only the design of mobile phones that has developed over the years, but the market has mushroomed too. While the networks had expected to have between 500,000 and 2 million customers each, the major networks now have over 10,000,000 UK customers each! One of the largest mobile phones UK networks is Orange, who have over 300 million people using their products across the globe. It is worth bearing in mind that 300 million of these subscribe to networks in which Voda has an interest.

The networks make more money from contract deals on mobile phones than from the pay-as-you-go phones which are incredibly popular among teenagers and mums. This is why many of the major players in the mobile industry focus their attention on attracting and keeping contract customers. This is another evolution in the mobile phone UK market - as companies are increasingly wary of a flooded market, they are trying harder and harder to please existing customers. Whether this is just a marketing ploy or sound business sense is yet to be confirmed, but it does appear that the demand for new handsets in the developed markets is waning.

Companies like Samsung phones are focusing their attention on developing markets where the competition for new customers is fierce. LG mobile is another large Asian phone company. Brands like Samsung and LG are bigger names in the Eastern markets than European rivals like Nokia. The largest developing market is, as you may expect, China. Two of the world's three largest mobile service providers are Chinese while a large proportion of the world's handsets are produced there.

Mobile phone manufacturers and service providers are facing a changing market but this shouldn't worry them too much: the mobile communication industry is one of the fastest moving on the planet. You can keep up with all the industry news from sites like Mobile Gazette and the Guardian's excellent technology blog.

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