April 3, 1973

Cooper, general manager of Motorola’s Communications Systems Division at the time, placed the first call to his rival, Dr. Joel S. Engel at AT&T’s Bell Labs. He publicly demonstrated the new technology in the streets of New York, using a “brick”-like 30-ounce phone. Martin said “As I walked down the street while talking on the phone, sophisticated New Yorkers gaped at the sight of someone actually moving around while making a phone call. Remember that in 1973, there weren’t cordless telephones, let alone cellular phones. I made numerous calls, including one where I crossed the street while talking to a New York radio reporter – probably one of the more dangerous things I have ever done in my life.”

It took 10 years to bring this new technology to market. Motorola introduced the 16-ounce DynaTAC phone into commercial service in 1983. The phone cost the consumer a paltry $3,500.

Cell Phones Today

Fast forward to today. Martin Cooper’s Star Trek-inspired vision has come to fruition. Today there are nearly 3 billion cell phone users world-wide. We use them everyday and they have seeped into every aspect of our lives, from checking email and texting to using GPS and taking pictures. And it all started 36 years ago today. It’s mind-boggling how much our world has changed in one generation’s time.

References:

• http://inventors.about.com/cs/inventorsalphabet/a/martin_cooper.htm
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Cooper_(inventor)
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone
• http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/09/05/planet-earth-now-home-to-four-billion-phone-lines/

Read more in this original July, 1973, Popular Science article.