Motorola DynaTAC 8000X: a piece of history that many remember with nostalgia; it was the first “brick phone” and there are really many people who remember him more for this nickname than for the real name that the company gave him. And still today, for many, it was the best mobile phone ever. No, he couldn’t make video calls or go online, of course, but first love is never forgotten and certainly the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X is well remembered.
In fact, the proportions it had were not at all similar to those of current smartphones and even the weight was no joke. One kilogram for a phone that, in those days, was considered extremely portable and decidedly not within everyone’s reach, despite the fact that many people grabbed it. The cost, when it came out, was nearly $3,995.00 and today they correspond to approx €10,000.00. Those who didn’t own it weren’t up to date with the times and many disputes arose over those who still preferred to go coin-operated in the famous arcade machines and those who, on the other hand, preferred to invest in the future.
Motorola DynaTAC 8000X: well over 300,000 mobile phones sold
For this piece of history, by now, we have to thank Martin Cooper, researcher and former vice president of Motorola, who worked hard to find a much more practical solution for future people within companies. In fact, this model was sought after more by those who did business, with the classic briefcases and elegant suit. Martin Cooper revolutionized the telephony world, especially when he made his own first call in front of the Hilton Hotel on April 3, 1973. And who called? The one who was considered his greatest enemy, and his friend: Joe Engel of Bell Laboratories AT&T (company operating in the research of new cutting-edge technologies, such as mobile phones).
“At Motorola we did it, cellular telephony is a reality” were Martin Cooper’s words to his friend. From March 6, 1983 until April 3, in fact, the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X was to be considered a simple prototype, something that could still be considered a good fairy tale for children. But with that phone call he made it clear that the product in question could really work and be sold to the public. To this day hardly anyone would ever intend to buy such a phone, with an autonomy of only scarce 30 minutes; in order to be able to call, and have it running, the person had to keep it charged for at least 10 hours and with the current times it is almost unthinkable to propose something like this.
Furthermore, it could only contain 30 telephone numbers, so the memory was poor, despite the fact that in those days it was to be considered a real mine, perhaps too much. The value that a mobile phone has today is almost invaluable and they are sought after more by collectors of the genre, to keep the history of world telephony alive. Not only that, because you can also see how it works in various films, such as in American Psycho from 2000 with Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman.
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