Happy B’day cell phone
It was back in April 1973 that Motorola employee Martin Cooper made a call in New York on a Motorola DynaTAC — widely regarded globally as the first public cellphone call. The device was nine inches tall, comprised 30 circuit boards, had a talk-time of 35 minutes, and took 10 hours to recharge.
Four decades on, a worldwide telecoms industry with annual revenues of £800 billion has grown rapidly based on wide choice, falling prices and an array of technologies, resulting in the average mobile being used to take photos, play music and games, send emails, download maps, watch video clips, all as well as talking and texting.
Dr Mike Short past President of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), and mobile industry veteran, says the coming years will see mobile innovation continue to change our lives.
The increasing demand to connect people has led to a growth in devices for both work and leisure. Connected machines are also now becoming much more prevalent. “With close to 7 billion customers today, we already expect this year globally more mobile devices (or subscriptions) than people” said Dr Mike Short.
“The first decade was a research or a ‘demonstrator’ phase, rapidly followed by Analogue networks deployed over 10 years from the early 1980's largely based on car phones and used in business in the developed world,” he summarised the development of mobile phones at an event held recently.
— Agencies