Motorola DynaTAC


Dr. Martin Cooper of Motorola, made the first private handheld mobile phone call on a larger prototype model in 1973.

The Motorola DynaTAC 8000X was the first mobile phone to receive FCC acceptance in 1983.[1] DynaTAC was actually an abbreviation of Dynamic Adaptive Total Area Coverage.

Contents

History

The first cellular phone was the culmination of efforts begun at Bell Labs, which first proposed the idea of a cellular system in 1947, and continued to petition the FCC for channels through the 1950s and 1960s, and research conducted at Motorola. In 1960, John F. Mitchell, an electrical engineer who graduated from the Illinois Institute of Technology, became Motorola's chief engineer for its mobile communication products. Mitchell oversaw the development and marketing of the first pager to use transistors.

Motorola had long produced mobile telephones for automobiles, that were large and heavy and consumed too much power to allow their use without the automobile's engine running. Mitchell's team developed portable cellular telephony, and Mitchell was among the Motorola employees granted a patent for this work in 1973; the first call on the prototype was completed, reportedly, to a wrong number.[2][3] While Motorola was developing the cellular phone itself, during 1968-1983, Bell Labs worked on the system called AMPS, which became the first cellular network in the US. Motorola and others designed cell phones for that and other cellular systems. Martin Cooper, a former general manager for the systems division at Motorola led a team that produced the DynaTAC8000x, first commercially available cellular phone small enough to be easily carried, and made the first phone call from it. The DynaTAC's retail price, $3,995, ensured that it would not become a mass market item; by 1998, when Mitchell retired, cellphones and associated services made up two thirds of Motorola's $30 billion in revenue.[4]

On Oct. 13, 1983, Bob Barnett, former president of Ameritech Mobile Communications placed the first commercial wireless call on a DynaTAC from inside a Chrysler convertible to the grandson of Alexander Graham Bell who was in Germany for the event. The call, made at Soldier Field in Chicago, is considered by many as a major turning point in communications. Later Richard Frenkel, the head of system development at Bell Laboratories, said about the DynaTAC: "It was a real triumph; a great breakthrough. ".[5]

Description

Several prototypes were made between 1973 and 1983. The product accepted by the FCC weighed 28 ounces (793g) and was 10 inches (25cm) high, not including its flexible "rubber duck" whip antenna. In addition to the typical 12-key telephone keypad, it had nine additional special keys:

  • Rcl (Recall)
  • Clr (Clear)
  • Snd (Send)

| align="left" valign="top" |

  • Sto (Store)
  • Fcn (Function)
  • End (End)

| align="left" valign="top" |

  • Pwr (Power)
  • Lock (Lock)
  • Vol (Volume)

|}

A DynaTAC 8000X.

The display utilized red LEDs, and was severely limited in what information it could show. The battery allowed for a call up to 60 minutes, after which it was necessary to charge the phone up to 10 hours in a trickle charger or 1 hour in a fast charger which was a separate accessory.[6] The DynaTAC was succeeded by the Motorola MicroTAC in 1989.

Portability

While it might be considered extremely unwieldy by today's standards, at the time it was considered revolutionary, because mobile telephones were bulky affairs installed in vehicles. The DynaTAC 8000X was truly the first mobile telephone which could connect to the telephone network without the assistance of a mobile operator and could be carried about by the user.

Model list

  • 1983 DynaTAC 8000x
  • 1985 DynaTAC 8000s
  • 1987 DynaTAC 8000m, 8500x, 8800x
  • 1987 DynaTAC 6000XL (car phone)
  • 1989 DynaTAC 8900x
  • 1992 America series
  • 1994 International 3200/3300 (GSM)
  • 1994 Ultra Classic/II

Accessories

In Singapore, a swivel antenna was one of the after-market accessories then available. It was revived by Henry Thia in the film Money No Enough, when he made a call on a DynaTAC complete with swivel antenna.

The Motorola company also sold a 1 hour desktop charger, though the battery could get quite hot while charging at this accelerated rate.

In popular culture

The DynaTAC has become associated with the 1980s in popular culture, and has been heavily used in film and media set in that period.

The phone is well known for being used by Gordon Gekko in Wall Street, and Tommy Vercetti in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. The phones have been given the nickname "Zack Morris Phones" because of their heavy use by the central character in the early 1990s sitcom Saved by the Bell.

References

  1. ^ "Motorola DynaTAC 8000x". Retro Brick. http://www.retrobrick.com/moto8000.html. Retrieved on 2007-06-07. 
  2. ^ Motorola Executive Helped Spur Cellular Revolution, Oversaw Ill-fated Iridium Project, Wall Street Journal, Remembrances, June 20-21, 2009, p. A10
  3. ^ John F. Mitchell, 1928-2009: Was president of Motorola from 1980 to '95, Chicago Tribune, June 17, 2009, retrived June 20, 2009
  4. ^ John F. Mitchell, Time Magazine Milestones section, July 6, 2009, p.17
  5. ^ "Cell Phones Ruin the Opera? Meet the Culprit". New York Times. January^"20th Anniversary of the World's First Commercial Cellular Phone". Motorola. http://motoinfo.motorola.com/motoinfo/20th_anniversary/photos.asp?year=2. Retrieved on 2007-06-07. 
    6, 2000. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F04EED8173BF935A35752C0A9669C8B63. Retrieved on 2009-05-26. 






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