A few days ago we celebrated 40 years of the mobile phone, which got me thinking about just how much has changed over the years.In 1973 the first ever call was made from a mobile phone, by Martin Cooper of Motorola, cheekily it was made to a rival, Joel of Bell Labs. The mobile phone in question weighed 1 kilogram and only had 20 minutes of battery life, which puts complaining about the iPhone battery into perspective.10 years later, in 1983, the Motorola DynaTAC was launched; it was the first ever mobile phone to be offered commercially. The list of features for this phone was very limited; you could simply talk, listen and dial. It could store 30 numbers and it measured in at 23cm x 13cm x 4cm. The battery life was improved upon but it still had just 35 minutes of talk time and 8 hours on standby. It also cost a whopping US$3,995, which is US$9,209 in today’s standards. Worst of all, it couldn’t even send and receive SMS!Compare this to today’s mobile phones, which have HD/retina quality screens, 1080p video cameras, can access the internet, run games, play films, can be used as a SATNAV, manage daily tasks and do almost anything through downloading apps. The list seems almost endless. The phones today are, when you think about it, absolutely unbelievable.The big question now is what does the next 40 years hold?
