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Ericofon and Ericofon 700, (Ericsson, 1953 and 1976)

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    Posted 12 years ago

    austrohung…
    (584 items)

    Yes, I am the proud owner of two Ericofons. Who doesn't want to own one of them?

    In 1998 I moved to my first appartment (a bit late me being 29 -but not too late for Spanish standards) but I somehow resisted to have a telephone line in it. In the Summer of 1999, when I met my SouthAfrican ex -who by then was living in Tallahassee. Fl... and was not my ex yet-, I made my mind up about having one so we could talk often. And of course, after having started collecting design items, my telephone set couldn't be an ordinary one, so I looked for the Ericofon, and found it at a famous Barcelona design store where they sold original Ericofons.

    The Ericofon 700 is a more recent purchase... I guess from about 2008. Well, I needed an extension phone so which could be the ideal one but the 1976 redesign of the Ericofon I already had?

    -----------

    (And now a little copy&paste combination explanatory text for the history of Ericofon ;) )

    The Ericofon was designed by Gösta Thames, Ralph Lysell, and Hugo Blomberg, a team of designers working for the Ericsson Company. Its origin dates back from 1941 although it was not commercially produced until 1954. Originally it was intended for institutional use, more specifically hospitals, as the one piece design of the Ericofon seemed to be the best way to call from when one's in bed.

    The Ericofon was produced for the European and Australian markets, but it couldn't penetrate the US market because of Bell Telephone's monopoly on the American telecommunications market. Bell absolutely refused to have these "foreign phones" go into use on their circuits and a lot of hype and propaganda concerning fears of damage to the system and such were used. But finally Bell allowed limited institutional use of the Ericofon, but still charging phone rent as though they had provided the phone. These were originally offered in 18 colors, but around 1961 the offering of colors was narrowed to 8.

    Around 1960, Ericsson had made a design modification to the Ericofon to accommodate a new molding method making a one piece shell instead of a two piece shell, which caused the phone to be a bit shorter and putting more of an angle to the receiver end. These are commonly referred to as "old case" or "new case" phones. This is why the American made Ericofons have the illusion of being shorter than the Swedish Ericofons.

    Around 1967, Ericsson introduced the first version of the pushbutton Ericofon that used TouchTone dialing, but these models had a poorly designed plastic part in the hook-switch mechanism that broke easily when the phone is dropped on a hard surface, that's why they are rarer to find.

    The Ericofon 700 -an upgraded version of the famous Ericofon- was the world's first completely electronic one-piece push-button telephone, and was designed to celebrate Ericsson's 100 anniversary.

    It was designed by the Swedish designer Karl-Arne Bregerhad and it's a more sober design than its famous predecessor, and was made in white, blue, orange and green.

    Strangely, it was not a market success as its predecessor was.

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    Comments

    1. AmberRose AmberRose, 12 years ago
      Call me :))
    2. austrohungaro austrohungaro, 12 years ago
      LOL I'm happy it's you who brought my first laugh of the day :)

      Sweet dreams!
    3. MawamaMama MawamaMama, 12 years ago
      Those are so cool. And 18 colors! Wow.
    4. AmberRose AmberRose, 12 years ago
      Glad I could provide a giggle.
      Phone home :))
    5. austrohungaro austrohungaro, 12 years ago
      Thanks guys for all your love for these phones! I was really surprised to see this was the first entry on Ericofons, although I know there are lots of collectors crazy about them and getting them in every possible combination of shape and colour... They're absolute design icons!
    6. hulalady56 hulalady56, 12 years ago
      OMG...My family had one like the white telephone,brings back memories of me and my girlfriends talking on the phone for hours...thanks for the memories
    7. austrohungaro austrohungaro, 12 years ago
      Lucky you had one and could experience good design firsthand, even without knowing it! :) Glad to bring those good memories to you, hulalady!
    8. AnneLanders AnneLanders, 11 years ago
      I had an ivory...they looked fab but totally awkward to use...use to keep cutting ppl off if I had to run after the children whilst on the phone or they would get knocked on to the floor a lot as I had it on the kitchen bench. The chord was way too short too. But as far as the coolness metre went they were 11/10...thanks for showing, I didnt know they did them in white...Telstra out here were very boring doing ivory..and I think they also came in red or orange? Had mine in 1982 I think in the first home I built so wanted to have all the mod cons...
    9. Vintagefran Vintagefran, 11 years ago
      Great! I Love these. Wish i still had all my old phones, they're so expensive to buy now:(
    10. austrohungaro austrohungaro, 11 years ago
      You're right Anne... they're totally awkward to use!!! I had mine in my bedroom, on the bedside table (their ring is pretty nice) and they looked fab there, but always used to cut peploe off!!! :)
    11. Virginia.vintage Virginia.vintage, 10 years ago
      So cool, love it!!
      Ahh, so lovely what you said dear Pat :)
      Vintage is forever if we want ;)
    12. NurseJackie NurseJackie, 7 years ago
      When I was a teenager we had a red one. I thought it was cool then, and I still think it’s cool today. ?????

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