Today we have gotten used to using them and they are part of our daily life, almost of ourselves. We refer to mobile phones, today already smartphones with which we can connect to the internet and do a thousand things. However, the first mobile phone in history It did not see the light until 1983. It was the iconic Motorola DynaTAC 8000X, which we are going to talk about in this post.
The history of these devices is longer than it seems, but what is more surprising is its amazing evolution. Those first mobiles only aspired to be able to offer call service without using cables or fixed devices, phones that could be used anywhere, as long as there was sufficient coverage. Nothing to do with all the things that can be done today with a smartphone. But that was the first step that had to be taken. And the person who gave it was Martin Cooper.
This engineer of Motorola designed a very rudimentary prototype: the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X was a phone that weighed 1,1 kg and offered a 30-minute autonomy to make or receive calls. After that time, it had to be recharged, for which you had to be patient, since no less than 10 hours were needed to complete the recharge. As users, today all this seems unacceptable, but at the time it was a true revolution. The word TAC was the acronym for Total Area Coverage.
Cooper is considered a pioneer. As he himself has explained on several occasions, he found the inspiration for his invention in the Star Trek series, where Captain Kirk used a communication device similar to what we understand today as a mobile.
Compared to current models, the DynaTAC 800X is a true "bill". Not only because of its considerable weight, but also because of its dimensions (33 cm long x 8,9 wide and 4,5 cm thick). On top of that, it was unbelievably expensive, almost a luxury item that started selling for almost US$4.000. And still more than 300.000 units were sold!
It should be noted that it was also from this phone from which it was sent the first SMS ever. It was December 1985 and the message was "Merry Christmas!"
Background
Without detracting from Cooper u in the slightest, the truth is that the idea of the mobile phone was already on the minds of many engineers almost a hundred years ago. And it is that in the 20s there were already prototypes of wireless communication systems, specially designed to be installed in cars.
During World War II, the company AT&T (which at that time had the monopoly of telephony in the United States) presented a system called Mobile Telephone Service, which was nothing more than that: the first mobile phone proposal in history. The idea required a fairly significant deployment of means. The system was mounted inside the trunk of the car, connected to the dashboard via a cable. Very far from the idea of a pocket mobile phone that we have today.
This bulky device gradually reduced in size and in the 60s it could already fit in a briefcase. What Cooper did next was basically follow this line until he designed a more manageable device, the first mobile phone.
Evolution of mobile phones
Following the path opened by the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X, the first mobile phone in history, many companies around the world launched to manufacture their cell phone models. In this way, some still very simple models saw the light, such as the Mobira Cityman by Nokia, launched in 1987, a mobile that "only" weighed 760 grams.
The first evolutionary leap in the world of mobile telephony came in the following decade, with the so-called 2G generation. The first 2G model was the Nokia 1011, from 1993, the first in a series of increasingly lighter models, with shorter antennas and thinner casings.
It is also from the same period simon from ibm, from 1994, a great unknown. Many consider this model the first smartphone in history, since it was the first to offer a touch screen and incorporate applications. Before the turn of the century, mobile phones with keyboards would also arrive, precursors of the popular Blackberry, clamshell or folding mobile models, as well as phones with a color screen, such as the Siemens S10 1998. Those were the times when Nokia and Motorola dominated the market.
With the turn of the century we began to see phones equipped with modest cameras (nothing to do with those of current models) and thus, in 2001, 3G cell phones arrived. By then, the mobile phone was already a massively used device in almost the entire world. Some of the models of that time, such as the Nokia 3310 it is still used today.
iPhone and smartphone concept
In 2007, the appearance of the first iPhone It was another great milestone in the history of these devices. The QWERTY keyboard and physical buttons were gone, replaced by a touch interface. This change made it possible to have a larger screen to browse the internet more easily. The smartphone or smart phone was already a reality that came to transform our lives.
The resounding success of the iPhone made Google react. Since then, we have attended that competition or rivalry between iOS and Android. The rest is history. In recent years, we have witnessed the launch of new models, each time sophisticated and powerful. We have also witnessed the implementation of 5G technology and the presentation of futuristic prototypes with capabilities and features that seem to be taken from a science fiction movie.
On the other hand, there have also been great changes in the market. In addition to Apple, there are currently Asian brands (Samsung, Huawei, Xiaomi and others) those that dominate the sector. It seems incredible that these wonderful mobiles are the successors of that rudimentary Motorola DynaTAC 8000X. And yet, it all started with him, with the first mobile phone in history. We must not forget it.