Time goes by fast! The first phone call, made on a handheld cellular phone, was made on the 3rd of April 1973, a whopping 50 years ago!
The invention of the mobile phone, or rather mobile terminal, is quite old. It was in 1956 that the earliest versions of the mobile phones were created. Ericsson’s first version was designed in 1956, weighed about 40 kilos and was the size of a suitcase.
The world’s first commercially available mobile phone, DynaTAC 8000x, was released to the market in 1983, by Motorola.
But it was ten years before that, that the first mobile phone call on a handheld device was made.
It was Martin Cooper, a Motorola engineer, that made the first call walking down the Sixth Avenue in New York.
“I’m ringing you just to see if my call sounds good at your end” is said to be the substance of the call. Maybe not as bombastic as the “What hath God wrought”, which was the first telegram message, but just as important non the less.
The prototype mobile phone, that the famous call was made from, was very far from the sleek smart phones we carry around today. It was nicknamed shoe because it was almost the size of a shoebox and weighed 2 kilos. It took 10 hours to charge, and that would give the user about 35 minutes of battery life.
A lot has happened since then of course, and what was first a device for distance communication has now become our assistant in our everyday lives, both privately and professionally. And as a company living by the motto “Mobile First”, we celebrate all the advancements that has led us to where we are, and we are looking forward to all innovations that are about to come.