Have you ever wondered about the remarkable evolution of technology over the years, particularly in Malaysia? Let’s journey back to the year 2000, a time when people heaved a sigh of relief that the Y2K bug, which was predicted to disrupt computer systems all over the world, fizzled out. The bug was expected to cause havoc as computers were programmed to handle years with only two digits, such as 99, which would cause the year to roll back to 00 or 1900 with the arrival of the year 2000, making computers malfunction. However, the National Y2K Project team, set up to monitor the nation’s transition into the new decade and formed under the Energy, Communications and Multimedia Ministry, said there were no incidences of the bug disrupting systems locally.
This was also the year when people and businesses started to get on the Internet bandwagon, hitching a ride on the slow dial-up connection. As of April 2000, it was reported that the number of Internet account holders in Malaysia stood at 750,000. Getting online was a laborious process that required dialling the Internet service provider’s (ISP’s) number, which may be tied up – a process that most will remember as the modem made a distinctly loud noise as it attempted to establish a connection.
As users were charged based on how long they were connected, staying online for extended periods of time was a luxury for most. Only a year later, Malaysians got to enjoy broadband Internet when TM Net, the country’s biggest ISP and a subsidiary of Telekom Malaysia, introduced Streamyx, offering unlimited access for RM88 a month with download and upload speeds of 384Kbps (kilobits per second) and 128Kbps, respectively.
In tune with the times Apple released the iPod in 2001, a portable digital music player with a sleek design, an innovative click wheel, and large internal storage space that took the world by storm. Users who were listening to music on CDs and cassettes could now carry thousands of songs on a device that fit into their pockets. They could also purchase songs or organise their music collection via the iTunes software, making them embrace the convenience of digital media over physical mediums. In Malaysia, the iPod was first showcased at the eWorld 2001 tech fair organised by The Star, but it only went on sale a year later for RM1,749 for the 5GB model. By then, PDAs (personal digital assistants), the precursor to the smartphone, had also started to become popular, with brands like PalmPilot and Handspring becoming household names among geeks.
During the early 2000s, one mobile phone brand reigned supreme – Nokia – introducing models like the entry-level 3310 that left an indelible mark in history. In fact, this phone could even leave a lasting impression on your wall if thrown, as it has a reputation for being indestructible. The Nokia 9210 Communicator, introduced in 2001, marked the company’s pioneering step into the Symbian OS, an early mobile operating system with a customisable interface and support for multitasking. Released in 2002, the Nokia 7650 touted as the company’s first phone with a built-in camera.
However, Nokia’s dominance would soon crumble as Apple reshaped the smartphone landscape forever in 2007 with the iPhone. Sporting an innovative touchscreen design, the iPhone boldly screamed, ‘Look, ma, no keypad!’. Apple co-founder and former CEO, the late Steve Jobs, declared the iPhone an iPod, phone, and “Internet communicator” in one device, deriding smartphones and PDAs that relied on styluses for input.
The 2000s will also be remembered for how social media platforms emerged and changed the way people interacted and communicated online. Friendster was launched in 2002, followed by MySpace in 2003, but it was Facebook that made the biggest impact, even though initially people were just busy virtually poking one another as a way of getting attention. It started to take off once it introduced a newsfeed that showed updates from friends, allowing everyone to keep up with each other despite being on different continents. Meanwhile, YouTube came along in 2005, revolutionised video sharing, and spurred people to make their own content.
The 2010s saw Microsoft’s various ill-fated forays into the world of smartphones, which started with Windows Phone 7, its Windows-based mobile operating system (OS), which received a local launch in October 2010. Devices using the Windows Phone 7 OS were made in collaboration with its hardware partners, such as HTC.
Samsung, on the other hand, was more successful in its gambit for the smartphone space, launching the first device in the company’s Galaxy S series of smartphones in Malaysia in July 2010 with the Galaxy S.
But it wasn’t until the Galaxy S II that Samsung took aim at Apple directly with its “next big thing” campaign, which allegedly made Apple concerned enough to consider changing its advertising agency, according to Samsung’s lawyer during a 2014 patent lawsuit between the companies. Samsung then popularised the idea of phablets, a portmanteau of phone and tablet, with the Galaxy Note, which had a display measuring 5.3in, considered large for the time. The influence of the Note series can still be seen today after it was folded into the mainline Galaxy S series with larger screens on the Ultra…
Credit: The Star : News Feed
