40 Years of Cellular Phone Technology

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April 3rd is the 40th anniversary of the first cell phone call.

 Motorola engineer, Marty Cooper made the call in 1973. The Verge reports Cooper telephoned Joel Engel who worked on a mobile phone at Bell Labs and said, "Joel, this is Marty. I'm calling you from a cell phone, a real handheld portable cell phone."

Cooper used Motorola's DynaTAC to make that first call - the brick phone that would gain a permanent place in pop culture through the characters like Zack Morris on "Saved By The Bell" and Gordon Gekko in film phenom, "Wall Street."

It is incredible how far cell phone technology has come in 40 years. The first cell phones weighed over 2 pounds, cost thousands and had a battery life of about 35 minutes. It is hard to imagine ever complaining about a smartphone again.

The DynaTAC was only the start of the cell phone, from brick phone to iPhone here are the most important devices in the cell phone's four-decade history.



The DynaTAC also known as the "brick phone" was the first cell phone released in 1983. The DynaTAC was a status symbol, made popular by shows like "Saved By The Bell" and the movie "Wall Street" in the 80's and had cost a whopping $3,995.



Simon, released by IBM in 1994, was arguably the first smartphone. Simon could run third party apps, keep track of a tasks list and perform a few other small capabilities that were highly impressive in 1994.

The Nokia 3310 was released in 2000 and featured such classic games as Snake II. The 3310 is considered one of the best selling mobile phones of all time, often referred to as "indestructible."

T-Mobile's Sidekick came out in 2003. The Sidekick was extremely popular with teenage girls and was Paris Hilton's cell phone of choice.

 

When the BlackBerry 7230 came out in 2003 it was the epitome of cool business tech. The early Blackberry was the start of the "crackberry" becoming a symbol of the business world.

 

Just the thought of the Motorola Razr that came out in 2004 creates such nostalgia! Who did not have or wished they had a Razr back in '04? The Razr started the trend of super thin phones and is the best-selling flip phone of all time.

 

iPhone 1

The first iPhone was released in 2007 and changed the cell phone game forever with its touchscreen and applications.

 

In 2009 Samsung released the first Galaxy on Google's Android operating system making Galaxy one of the first touchscreen cell phones to compete with the iPhone.