The mobility revolution seems to be on the verge of yet another breakthrough with the announcement last week of Samsung’s Galaxy Gear smart watch, with its 320 x 320-pixel display, 1.63-inch AMOLED touchscreen, camera, speakers, apps, and, of course, a watch!

Samsung’s GG — along with Google Glass and Apple’s much anticipated iWatch due out within the next year — represent the next generation of mobility devices that analysts predict will grow from a $750 million to a $5.8 billion business in six years.

That’s a lot of Dick Tracy watches and Star Trek Tricorders.

Then again, 10 years ago, the smartphone was in its infancy, tablet computers barely existed, and for all but the largest companies, serious business was conducted on the phone or in person. In 1964, a jazz musician named Teri Pall invented the first cordless phone. Only problem was that the phone had only a two-mile range and it interfered with aircraft radio signals.

Flash forward to today, and you probably don’t need a study to convince you that even the smallest businesses rely on wireless technologies in their daily operations. (In case you do, consider this one from AT&T, which reports that 98 percent of SMBs rely on wireless technologies for daily business operations and two-thirds would face major challenges trying to to survive without them.)

The graphic below, developed by mobile payment company SwitchPay, goes even further back in time — to 1946 — when a driver in St. Louis, Mo. pulled out a handset from under his car’s dashboard, placed a phone call, and made history. read more