November 17, 2005
I Invented ... The Cell Phone
Matt Rodbard for SyncMag, interviews Martin Cooper, the man who invented the cell phone.
Excerpts
"The 2.5-pound behemoth, christened Dyna-Tac, took years to design, and when it was eventually introduced in '83 as a retail cell phone, it cost $4,000. Hundreds of Motorola engineers worked to create portable antennas, low-current emiconductors and other mini miracles to make Cooper's wireless dream a reality, all in the name of breaking up a monopoly.
"We needed to prove that a company other than Bell could participate in this new industry, and our people did it," says Cooper.
... Since his brainchild not only slew a corporate Goliath but wound up in the hands of every creature on earth, he must be wealthier and more revered than Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison and Carrot Top combined. Right? "I signed away all my patent rights to Motorola for a dollar when I joined the company and don't get any royalties," Cooper says, without putting a shotgun into his mouth. "But I earned a few dollars with stock options and I still have the $1 check they gave me." That might be worth something on eBay. "
Related:
-- Cell Phone turns 30 - On the 3rd of April 1973, thirty years ago, Dr Martin Cooper, today a trim, white-haired dapper septuagenarian who holds eight patents, most of them in wireless communications technology, made the first cell phone call, in a demonstration outside a Hilton Hotel in New York, that became the first step towards a massive change in the way we communicate.
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