happy birthday mobile phones

Up until 40 years ago, people were doomed to use fixed line phones to communicate.

How dull must it have been to have to wait until you saw someone, or until you were in reach of a "landline" phone before you could share the details of your lunch? And, imagine this, you couldn't send them an image of your lunch or a funny sign you had seen because, not only were phones stationary, but they also didn't have cameras!!

Then 40 years ago this month, a researcher from Motorola made the first "mobile phone" call from a street corner in New York. The heavy, ugly monstrosity used by the Motorola employee would be unrecognisable using today's definition of mobility, but it sure does mark the start of something big.

It wasn't until the 80's that i can remember seeing mobile phones in the wild. These were monsters too, mostly battery, with huge LCD or LED number screens. As batteries became smaller and processing power per square centimetre began increasing at an exponential rate, mobile phones became practical and affordable.