Martin Cooper

March 28, 2010 11:29 AM

Interview with Martin Cooper, inventor of the first handheld cellular phone.
posted by snoktruix (5 comments total)

I thought Bruce McCullough invented the cell phone
posted by any major dude at 12:07 PM on March 28, 2010

inventor of the first handheld cellular phone.

The cellular concept came out of Bell Labs and was first suggested in 1947.

In 1957 a Soviet engineer built the first portable radiotelephone. Kupriyanovich made a "handheld" prototype in 1958. It wasn't a cellular phone, but it was a radiotelephone.

It wasn't until 1958 that Ericsson in Sweden built the first fully automatic cellular system.

Cooper made the first handheld call on a Motorola DynaTac in 1973. This was the first true handheld cellular phone.
posted by three blind mice at 12:21 PM on March 28, 2010

Cooper did most of his growing up here in Winnipeg; Chicago is where he was born. He's also an advocate for more competition among carriers, and believes that it will take another eight years for WiMax to take off (from a CBC interview in 2007.)
posted by Hardcore Poser at 12:47 PM on March 28, 2010

This guy's in his 80s?? He sounds like he's in his 30s. He's not talking nostalgically about coming up with this cell phone back in the day; he talking about solutions for the key issues affecting cell phone communications today (and tomorrow). Really bright guy.
posted by eye of newt at 3:53 PM on March 28, 2010 [1 favorite]

Awwww. I owned a Motorola Brick phone for years and years until my boyfriend (now husband) made me get a teeny cell phone. I was able to develop biceps with that thing.
posted by jeanmari at 4:35 PM on March 28, 2010