First Versions: Motorola (cellphone)

Motorola logo 1955
by Morton Goldsholl

Name: "Motorola DynaTAC 8000X"

Categories: Electronics, Home - Office - School

Subcategory: Telephony

Inventor: Martin Cooper

Producer: Motorola, Inc. (founded by brothers Paul V. and Joseph E. Galvin in 1928, as Galvin Manufacturing Corporation)

Prototypes made since: 1973

Martin Cooper
Chicago - Dec. 26, 1928,
the inventor of the
handheld cellular Mobile,
phoneholding his
prototype DynaTAC
cellphone in 2007

Production start: 1984 - Schaumburg, Illinois, USA

First price: 3,995 USD

Features: The world's first commercial handheld cellular phone, the Motorola DynaTAC (abbreviation of Dynamic Adaptive Total Area Coverage) 8000X phone, received approval from the FFC (U.S. Federal Communications Commission) on September 21, 1983. It weighed 28 ounces (790 g) and was 10 inches (25 cm) high, not including its flexible "rubber duck" whip antenna. It offered 30 minutes of talk time and 8 hours of standby, and a LED display for dialing or recall of one of 30 phone numbers. In addition to the typical 12-key telephone keypad, it had nine additional special keys: Rcl (recall); Clr (clear); Snd (send); Sto (store); Fcn (function); End; Pwr (power); Lock; Vol (volume).

Interesting facts: On April 3, 1973 Cooper and Mitchell demonstrated two working phones to the media and to passers-by prior to walking into a scheduled press conference at the New York Hilton in midtown Manhattan. Standing on Sixth avenue near the Hilton, Cooper made the first handheld cellular phone call in public from the prototype DynaTAC. In 1984 Motorola DynaTAC 8000X was the first cell phone to be offered commercially in the world.

Slogan: «This is a Motorola cellular portable telephone. Take it to work, to play, to lunch and still keep up with your customers, your suppliers, your life».

Property: Motorola, Inc.

Producer website: http://www.motorola.com

Motorola DynaTAC (1973)

Motorola DynaTAC trademark (filed October 19, 1973). Bottom-right: «SN 4,076. Motorola, Inc., Chicago, Ill., by merger and change of name from Motorola, Inc., Franklin Park, Ill. Filed Oct. 19, 1973. DYNATAC - For Radio Telephone Communications Systems Comprising Transmitters, Receivers, Controls and Parts Therefor (U.S. Cl. 21). First use June 30, 1973».

Motorola DynaTAC review (Business Week, April 7, 1973). «Motorola invents the take-along phone».

Motorola DynaTAC review June 1973 - cover

Motorola DynaTAC review (Popular Science, June 1973, cover and extract). «NEW TAKE-ALONG TELEPHONES Give You Pushbutton Calling to Any Phone Number».