Motorola M300

The Motorola m300 was one of the first mobile phones to be offered for use on the Mercury one2one digital network when it was launched in 1993. Mercury had approached design consultancy IDEO to develop a mobile that would have a unique appearance, be offered at low cost, be easy to use and have mass appeal. Their design was subsequently manufactured by Motorola as the m300. It was a flip design and had a retractable aerial. The M300 cost £300. The other, made by Siemens, was larger, heavier and cheaper, the M200. The M300 was, of course, a restyled version of the Motorola flip phones, the 5080,5200 etc, but tweaked to work on Mercury's 1800Mhz PCN network. It was a pretty neat restyle. The M300 had Mercury's grey colour scheme with blue buttons. The flip did not cover all the buttons, but left the top three exposed and it carried the One2One and Mercury logos. The M301 came along in 1994 and was smaller and lighter, but otherwise looked very similar. Both of these models were upstaged by a much improved M400, which dispensed with the flip. However, the M301 soldiered on into 1997, by which time you could get one for just £10.