Aquapac
Aquapac is a registered trademark and brand name of a UK-based manufacturing company, Aquapac International Limited, specializing in waterproof cases and bags. The privately owned company was formed in 1983 and holds patents worldwide on systems for sealing bags and cases. The range commenced with a waterproof case for the original Sony Walkman known as the ‘Aquaman’, followed by cases for handheld VHF radios. Following Motorola’s invention of the first cellphone Aquapac launched the world’s first waterproof cellphone case. Nokia was an important customer for these cases during the 1990s, as were cellphone operators such as Deutsche Telekom and NTT DoCoMo. Aquapac went on to launch waterproof cases for other handheld electronics such as cameras and eReaders. The company operates out of factories in London, England.
Mobile telephony
The advent of cellular technology encouraged European countries to co-operate in the development of a pan-European cellular technology to rival those of the US and Japan. This resulted in the GSM system, the initials originally from the Groupe Spécial Mobile that was charged with the specification and development tasks but latterly as the 'Global System for Mobile Communications'. The GSM standard eventually spread outside Europe and is now the most widely used cellular technology in the world and the de facto standard. The industry association, the GSMA, now represents 219 countries and nearly 800 mobile network operators. There are now estimated to be over 5 billion phone subscriptions according to the "List of countries by number of mobile phones in use" (although some users have multiple subscriptions, or inactive subscriptions), which also makes the mobile phone the most widely spread technology and the most common electronic device in the world.