On April 3, 1973, exactly 50 years ago, the first call in history from a mobile phone took place. A small event, lasting a few minutes, which changed the history of telecommunications forever. The story of that phone call is definitely fascinating.
Don’t expect an ultra-thin iPhone. The cell phone he used Martin Cooperengineer for Motorola who made the historic first phone call, had the size of an intercom.
Do you know today’s incredible ultra-fast charging technologies? Here: forget them.
The not-so-smart phone used by Cooper weighed more than a kilo, recharged in 10 hours and discharged after half an hour of use. He was called DynaTacand will not be released until 1983.
The story of the first mobile phone call ever
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On the morning of April 3, 1973, in New York, Martin Cooper took a first rudimentary DynaTac prototype and dialed a number. He wasn’t phoning his wife or his boss, on the contrary. Cooper dialed the number of Joel Engel, a friend of his. Engel was also an engineer, but worked for the Bell Labsa competitor of Motorola.
With that historic call Cooper informed his friend/rival that cell phone calls had become a reality.
A nice way to say: “hey, are you still banging your head? Because we succeeded here, guess where I’m calling you from”. Of course, it is not known what Cooper’s exact words were, but why ruin a good story with the truth?
Martin Cooper holds up a DynaTac model, the same one with which he made the first mobile phone call in history. Photo by Best SDC! (via Wiki)
Today Martin Cooper is 94 years old and, as can be seen from his Twitter profile (who has the irresistible nick of @MartyMobile), is still a big tech enthusiast. Over the years he has been very critical of contemporary society’s dependence on smartphones and the effects of modern devices on children.
The DynaTac: the first mobile phone in history
Between 1983 and 1984, about ten years after that phone call, Motorola attempted to make the prototype more manageable (after all, 1Kg for a portable device was not such a great convenience).
The first model to hit the market was the DynaTac 8000X, sold at a price of almost 4 thousand dollars. Definitely a figure not accessible to most. About 300,000 pieces were sold.
The rest is history.