Who Invented the Cell Phone

The idea of portable phones that can be used to make calls wherever you go was a revolutionary idea. Unfortunately, when the idea of a mobile phone was devised in the late 1940s, there were not a sufficient amount of radio spectrum frequencies to support the volume of data that would potentially be transmitted with the use of cellular phones. By the 1970s, the possibility of a properly functioning cellular phone became more realistic.

Doctor Martin Cooper is considered to be the inventor of the first mobile. At that time, Cooper was working as the Director of Research and Development at Motorola. Along with the being credited for the invention of the cell phone, Cooper is also credited for making the first phone call on a cellular phone in April of 1973. Today, Martin Cooper, age 81, resides in Chicago, Illinois and is the CEO and founder of ArrayComm, a company that focuses on the improvement of wireless network communications.

The first cell phone is not what many today would consider a mobile phone. It weighed approximately two pounds and was more than three times the size of today’s average phone. The first cellular phone was also very expensive, costing nearly $4,000. By 1990, already 12.6 million people around the world were partaking in this phenomenon. Less than 20 years later, the number of cell phone subscriptions multiplied 370 times to a continuously rising 4.6 billion accounts.

Since the early 1970s, the standard cellular phone has evolved greatly. In addition to being able to perform the standard calling function, modern mobile phones are equipped with thousands of applications for user convenience as well as having the capability to connect to the Internet. Today, cell phones can also function as MP3 players, GPS devices, and radios. Over the years, the average weight of a cell phone has also decreased to less than a pound.

Dr. Martin Cooper’s accomplishment is one that is often times under appreciated. Without Cooper’s contribution to technology, communication wouldn’t be nearly as simple as it has been made over the years. Computers and cars are also becoming compatible with features of cell phones. Each day, the capabilities of cell phones advance.