Inventor of Cell Phone: We Knew Someday Everyone Would Have One

As I was skimming around CNN.com today, catching up on techie news, I found this awesome article called Inventor of Cell Phone: We Knew Someday Everyone Would Have One written by Tas Anjarwalla. I was fascinated as I read the history of the cell phone- which I knew nothing about before.

I don’t even own a home phone. My cell phone is my life! When my cell dies, I feel completely shut off from the world. I get a panicky feeling knowing that I’m unreachable for a temporary amount of time. I can’t really remember what life was like before I had a cell phone- and I’m not that old!

It was a  really great read- check it out…

In 1973, Martin Cooper changed the world, although he didn’t know it yet.

Cooper and his team at Motorola, the communications company, created maybe the only thing that runs the lives of business professionals and teenagers alike — the cell phone.

It was the size of a brick and wasn’t commercially sold for another decade. But as Cooper demonstrated on a New York sidewalk, it worked.

The concept of cellular technology had already been created by Motorola’s rival, AT&T, whose Bell Labs introduced a system allowing calls to be moved from one cell to another while remaining on the same channel. But AT&T was focusing this technology on the car phone.

Cooper wanted people to have freedom to talk on the phone away from their cars. So in reaction, he and Motorola embarked on a project to create a more portable device.

Motorola spent three months building a prototype for a portable, mobile handset that Cooper publicly demonstrated in April of 1973. The company’s first commercial cellular phone, the “DynaTAC,” went on sale 10 years later.

Cooper, now 81, is founder of ArrayComm, a company working to improve cellular networks, smart antenna and wireless communication. He and his wife are also inventors of the Jitterbug, a simplified cell phone geared to senior citizens.

Cooper was surprised when his landline dropped our call. After calling him back on his mobile, we had a chance to ask him about the creation of the device that changed the face of communication as we know it.

To read a copy of their very interesting conversation, click here to go the actual article on CNN Tech.