40 Years Later – The Evolution Of Mobility

By Author: Jennifer Lewis
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A lot of people probably did not know this, or did not remember, but it was 40 years ago, precisely April 3, 1973, when the first wireless phone was publicly used. On this date, Martin Cooper, Vice President, Communications Systems, Motorola walked down the streets of New York City with a three pound (yes, that’s right) portable phone, even as people stared. The device was called DynaTAC. Always the forward thinker, in its first press release, Motorola predicted that portable phones would be used by virtually everyone, “anyone who needs or wants telephone communications in areas where conventional telephones are unavailable.” At that time, perhaps they themselves did not understand how true their prediction would be.

It would take 10 years and over 100 million dollars before the first commercial cellphone would be produced. The DynaTac 8000X, weighing “only 30 ounces,” went on sale in 1983 for $3,995. For those who have seen the 1987 version of the movie ‘Wall street’ would remember DynaTAC being used in the film. The prohibitive cost of the device, which offered 30 minutes of talk time, saw the gadget become ...
... a fad with the C-level execs. However, soon organizations saw its value, and blessed the field services with it. Soon rescue workers and reporter increased the weight of their dailywear by 30 ounces, while reducing the pocket size of their employers by almost four thousand dollars. The power of mobility however, was evident even then. It gave freedom to people unlike anything before.

As more vendors joined the fray, the costs and device size started coming down. However, at $200 a month for dial tone alone, services were very expensive. Value added service (seriously, VAS was different then) like call waiting, forwarding, voicemail and roaming started being offered by the carriers. As a result, the number of subscribers rose to two and a half million in 1989 (the year Motorola launched the 8 ounce MicroTAC) from just hundred thousand in 1985.

The next major breakthrough happened in the world of mobile in 1993, when 2G came in. Prices dropped, and popularity increased. The number of subscribers shot up from 14 million in 1993 to 74 million in 1998. This period was also the time when cellular phones started being used for personal pusposes. 1998 was also the year that Motorola produced StarTAC, its 3 ounce, clamshell design. It was the first phone with SMS capabilities (teenagers, thank the invention) , and a Li-ion battery. It was here, that the cell phones sales became influenced by like, instead of just utility.

With 3G coming in 2002, the user community rose to 297 million. Today, with 4G, the number of mobile phones in the US has surpassed its population. Though the internet ready phones were introduced in 1999, the usage was primarily voice based until 3G came along. While not started by it, the mobile phone certainly boosted the remote workforce. By 1993, there were 7.6 million telecommuters, up 15% from the year before, concluded a survey by LINK Resources. That amount almost doubled by 2000. Today, more than 60 million Americans are now operating remotely for a significant portion of their time, and according to Yankee Group, 2012 was the tipping point — a year in which the majority (54%) of those workers, for the first time, was comprised of professional workers — executives, managers and non-managerial workers as opposed to the dedicatedly mobile field, sales and delivery employees.

As the smartphones continue to evolve, we can hardly predict what will happen after another four decades. However, we can surely look back and say one thing – Happy Birthday mobile phone!

The author holds a content writer position with one of the top mobile application development solutions firm. They provide quality mobility solutions for multiple verticals like mobile solutions for healthcare.