Tech – 40th Anniversary of the Mobile Phone
Words: Gentleman's Journal
Yesterday the world celebrated the 40th anniversary of the mobile phone. One thing’s for sure, mobile technology has come on leaps and bounds since 1973 when what we now refer to as smartphones were understandably dubbed ‘bricks.’
In fact, it was on 3 April 1973 that Motorola employee Martin Cooper made a call in New York on a Motorola DynaTAC to his rival, Joel S. Engel of Bell Labs, from a street corner in New York.
“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,” Cooper is reported to have said.
This revolutionary call is now widely regarded globally as the first public mobile phone call. Do you believe us when we recall the device measuring 9 inches, weighing more than a kilogram, and comprising of 30 circuit boards with a total talk-time of 35 minutes and, wait for this, it took 10 hours to recharge. Yes 10 hours! Nowadays phones run out of battery in half this time because they are so chockablock with never-ending data.
Four decades on, a worldwide telecoms industry with annual revenues of £800bn has grown and grown and is innovating at high-speed. So much so that, according to Mike Short, an expert from the Institution of Engineering and Technology, “The world of around 7bn devices connected today should be in excess of 70bn connected devices in 40 years’ time.” Want to reminisce? Check out these vintage shots above……..
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