50 years ago Martin Cooper, a former Motorola engineer who became known as the “father of cell phones”, developed the DynaTAC 8000x, the first mobile device to make a telephone call. The success of the used device was so great that it encouraged the American manufacturer to invest US$ 100 million in the project, which later hit stores in 1983.
The cell phone, 33 cm tall and weighing 1.1 kg, had no screen and only had physical buttons, speaker, microphone and a large physical antenna. It had its own power source, capable of holding a conversation for about 30 minutes and could receive a signal from the antennas for just over 8 hours and in the socket it needed 10 hours for a full charge.
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The telecommunications giant Bell System was the one who motivated Martin Cooper to develop the Motorola DynaTAC 8000x. In 1972, he gathered professionals in chips, transistors, antennas and filters who worked for three months to create a device that could be used anywhere and, since then, the evolution of cell phones has been impressive.
Devices that play music, play videos, connect to the internet and download all sorts of applications. Not only has the size changed, from the initial 33 cm to devices under 15 cm and much lighter, but prices have also dropped: while the DynaTAC cost US$ 5,000 in 1983, today it is possible to buy an iPhone 14 Pro for US$ 999 in the United States.
It was in the 90s that features such as text messaging appeared. The first cell phone sold in Brazil, the Motorola PT-550, became known as the “brick” thanks to its 348 g and 22.8 cm height.
In the 2000s came smartphones, with innovations such as the emergence of integrated cameras and 3G/GPRS/EDGE networks. From then on, cell phones became indispensable in everyday life and through them it was already possible to browse the Internet, access e-mails and edit text files.
Trends for the sector
What could be yet to come when it comes to mobile devices? Experts are analyzing the issue and believe that they should not only become even more resistant and with more durable batteries, but should also integrate smart clothing and make use of 3D devices and augmented reality.
“The manufacturing scale of cell phones is immense and, therefore, the gains in scale are also enormous. This makes it possible to incorporate new technologies very quickly and often at an affordable cost. Many people today, especially in developing countries, have their cell phone as their only computer. This is the reality in Brazil,” says Marco Poli, CIO at Closedgap, a consultancy specializing in digital transformation solutions.
“Cell phones have evolved quickly and the trend is to continue, with folding screens, flexible, lighter and more resistant devices. They will be able to integrate with virtual augmented reality resources and AI will come in strong, making the devices even more integrated, allowing more advanced virtual assistants to automate tasks”, says João Gabriel, head of technology at Ideen, a business accelerator. For him, we will also have integration between cell phones and wearable devices, such as clothes and smart watches and augmented reality glasses.
According to the CEO of Megatelecom, a telecommunications company and B2B market operator, Carlos Eduardo Sedeh, we will see transformations and evolutions not only in the physical part of the devices, motivated by their increasingly intense use, such as increasingly durable batteries, but a trend it is also that cell phones have more day-to-day functions, starting to control the health (heart rate, blood pressure, etc.) of their users.
screen addiction
Over time, cell phones began to occupy more and more space in people’s lives, who became avid consumers of information. This has had consequences for both the physical and mental health of individuals, creating problems such as increased anxiety and decreased cognitive capacity.
“The cell phone has become a gadget that unified several other devices. Today it is used to update oneself, play games, transfer money, move around, feed oneself, operate on the stock exchange, entertainment, among many other applications. It is to be assumed that with the 5G network and new future versions, the dependence on mobile screens will continue to increase. I don’t see its use decreasing, but it is possible that people themselves seek a balance between online and offline life”, says the CEO of Megatelecom.
According to Ideen’s head of technology, cell phone dependence is increasingly latent in society, but it is possible to create mechanisms and strategies to deal with this issue, promoting a healthy balance between real life and devices. “We must create digital education devices to educate children and adults about the healthy and responsible use of technology by creating awareness about the impacts of excessive screen use. Wellness features, reminders to take a break, limit usage time, especially in children,” he highlights. Encouraging offline activities (sports, reading books, face-to-face and outdoor social activities) is also among the actions that can be taken to reduce the harm caused by excessive cell phone use.
“The maxim of our mothers that everything that is in exaggeration is bad seems to also apply to the use of screens and this is a characteristic that is being actively studied by manufacturers, with more and more applications and possibilities for somehow regulating or mitigate the overuse of smartphones. However, the trend, in my view, is for innovation to adapt and adapt so that, in the progress of the new forms of interaction that we will have in the future, this can also be addressed and resolved by technology”, concludes the CIO of Closedgap .
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