Happy Birthday, Cellphone

The device that has transformed our lives celebrated its 40th birthday yesterday

It has transformed and redefined the way we communicate. From being christened as “Brick” given its size, the cellphone (or mobile phone) celebrated a quiet 40th birthday on 03 April, 2013.

The first hand-held mobile phone was demonstrated by John F Mitchell and Dr Martin Cooper of Motorola in 1973, using a handset weighing around 2.2 pounds, around 1 kilogram.

According to reports, Cooper made the first call on a handheld mobile phone on 3 April 1973 to his rival, Dr Joel S Engel of Bell Labs. The new invention sold for $3,995 and weighed two pounds, leading to the nickname "the brick".

The world's first commercial automated cellular network was launched in Japan by NTT in 1979. Two years later, this was followed by the simultaneous launch of the Nordic Mobile Telephone (NMT) system in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. Several countries then followed in the 1980s including the UK, Mexico and Canada.

Technology

Cellphone technology and its uses have changed and evolved over time. On 6 March 1983, the DynaTAc mobile phone launched the first US 1G network by Ameritech. It cost $100 million to develop, reports suggest. The phone had a talk time of just half an hour and took ten hours to charge.

One of the most commonly used data application on mobile phones is SMS text messaging, or short messaging service. The first SMS text message was sent from a computer to a mobile phone in 1992 in the UK, according to reports, while the first person-to-person SMS from phone to phone was sent in Finland in 1993.

Cellular technology and cellphones, too, have advanced and become "smart" over time and now offer a host of features including built-in cameras, voice and video recording, internet access, games and much more.