# Cell phone 40 years old today.



## carverman (Nov 8, 2010)

1973..the first mobile phone appeared..it was big, it was clumsy looking and referred to as "the brick" and it cost initially $3500 to buy. Not too many teenagers, or households
could afford it in 1973 dollars. 10 years later, one product was finally available for $3500 US...which in today's money would be closer to $12,000 after tax.
Yet through years, consumer demand and telco investment made it so affordable..that they are practically giving them away for free..provided you sign a contract for 2 or 3 years
with your cell phone provider.

The cell phone invention was attributed to Martin Cooper, a Motorola engineer. 


> Martin Cooper added, "As I walked down the street while talking on the phone, sophisticated New Yorkers gaped at the sight of someone actually moving around while making a phone call. Remember that in 1973, there weren't cordless telephones, let alone cellular phones. I made numerous calls, including one where *I crossed the street while talking to a New York radio reporter - probably one of the more dangerous things I have ever done in my life.*"
> 
> Following the April 3, 1973, public demonstration, using a "brick"-like 30-ounce phone, Cooper started the 10-year process of bringing the portable cell phone to market. Motorola introduced the 16-ounce "DynaTAC" phone into commercial service in 1983, with each phone costing the consumer $3,500. It took seven additional years before there were a million subscribers in the United States. Today, there are more cellular subscribers than wireline phone subscribers in the world, with mobile phones weighing as little as 3 ounces.


I got my first affordable cell phone in 1996..it was sold by Clearnet, which was bought out by Telus. 

Evolution: 1973 -1983 (!st decade) Most portable phones were very expensive and used primarily in business.
1983 - 1993 (second decade) as cell phone networks began to be installed everywhere, the service providers made it more affordable to the consumer
1993-2003 (3rd decade) large scale expansion of cell phone networks and copper land line (home phone) shrinking) Big incumbents like Bell/Rogers offering more packages/bundling etc
to the consumer
2003-2013 (4th decade)..more expansion of the cell phone market with more advanced products being available (Iphone LTE) and merging of internet and cellular phone service

The next decade? What do you want your mobile phone to do for you?


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## Daniel A. (Mar 20, 2011)

Great history lesson.

Given that today's phones have GPS, APPs , its hard to imagine what more can be done.


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## Toronto.gal (Jan 8, 2010)

carverman said:


> The next decade? What do you want your mobile phone to do for you?


I would like the loud voices of those speaking on their phones in public not audible! 

The question is, which company will be the most techno-savvy a decade from now?


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## carverman (Nov 8, 2010)

Toronto.gal said:


> I would like the loud voices of those speaking on their phones in public not audible!
> 
> The question is, which company will be the most techno-savvy a decade from now?


Unfortunately there is always side effects to technological change. People think it's their right to yak/nswer calls on them in theatres, buses and other public places.
Texting, which is very popular right now with the younger crowd, seems to be replacing grammar in everyday use. For the latest generation, there seems to be a incredible
number of apps available that can do just about anything at your finger tips...at a cost of course. The recent popularity of different forms of social media..Twitter, etc
drives the way people use these products. 

The big players will always be there..because that's their main business and revenue generators these days. A few years ago, it cost a few dollars to make a long distance
call across Canada, now you can make those for next to nothing or even nothing. The land line which used to cost $30 a month or more, is now being discounted
to around $14.95 or less with VOip technology. 

What else can they do with the cell phone in the next 10 years besides stream movies/TV, newspapers etc? Only the iinovator's imagination can show us that.
With Bluetooth technology, which is available in some modern vehicles these days, you can work from your car, using it as an office. With cameras installed
in every cell phone, you can take pictures and transmit those pictures. If they come up with a second camera or re-arrange the optics on the cell phone,
you can have the same two way conversation with pictures of who you are talking to ...as with Skype.

Side effects: Who should we blame?... the innovators or the people using the products?
More car crashes, more deaths due to inattention to the road and traffic conditions while talking and texting while driving.
Predators can lure children if they are spending a lot of time on their iphones on the internet.
I'm sure there are other negative side effects as well...as society evolves over the next 10 years and the more and more of the new generation are used to having them.


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## Beaver101 (Nov 14, 2011)

Toronto.gal said:


> *I would like the loud voices of those speaking on their phones in public not audible!*
> 
> The question is, which company will be the most techno-savvy a decade from now?


 ... +1. 



> The next decade? What do you want your mobile phone to do for you?


 ... tough question to answer when one is not a fan of one. :confused2:


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## Ponderling (Mar 1, 2013)

I know it is a very handy tool that has revolutionized our society, in countless ways.

No longer do you need to have a secretary and call in from pay phones in my industry. 
Stay in touch in all kinds of ways.

It has also taken other things away. 

People no longer plan in advance on how to connet with theire friends.
Why plan ahead, when you can text you pals at 5:30 on what to do that night.

It also convinced all sorts of young people who really should be putting their limited funds to better purposes to keep buying the latest phones.
My guess is they spend over $60 per month is my conservative guess, on what they now see as necessities. 

No, not a luddite, but a bigger upheaval event than what you expect.

And we are still being screwed on the high cellular costs here in Canada.

Any time a start up gets going the oligopoly gobbles them up after a few years.


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## nathan79 (Feb 21, 2011)

It's interesting that it took almost 30 years to become widely adopted, particularly when you consider the World Wide Web (not to be confused with the Internet) was ubiquitous after about 10 years. Even television was widely popular within 20 years of it's introduction.

I don't think that cell phones really revolutionized communication, they just made it more convenient. Most people I know didn't get phones until after 2000, and some still don't have them. At least one of my friends (34 years old), my mother, and my grandmother still don't have cells. Other friends finally caved in around 2005, which is also when I got my first cell.


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## carverman (Nov 8, 2010)

Ponderling said:


> Any time a start up gets going, *the oligopoly gobbles them up after a few years*.


Well, its a big cellular ocean out there..it's a lot like fishing. 
The little minnows (end users) have more money these days to buy cell phones... and get hooked on them,(free phones with 3 year plan.."if you try to get out, we will breaka your legs!"). 
The bigger Angler fish (upstarts) attract them with lower rates at first to get them hooked. 
The big sharks (oligopoly) wait for the anglers to attract enough customers and then gobble them up. 
Then they start changing the rules for the end users..pay more/get less..


> Oligopoly is a common market form. As a quantitative description of oligopoly, the four-firm [concentration ratio] is often utilized. This measure expresses the market share of the four largest firms in an industry as a percentage. For example, as of fourth quarter 2008, Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile together control 89% of the US cellular phone market.


The same can be said for the Canadian cell phone market...Bell/Rogers/Telus...everyone else are upstarts that have or will be eaten by the oligopolies.

Of course, the big investment is the infrastructure..only the big boys can afford the big investment to provide cell service in the high traffic areas.
It costs a fortune to provide cell service for smaller communities way up North, even if some only need one cell tower. 
Just heard today that another remote community in NWT of 1477 people (Cambridge Bay ) now have cell service by Northwes Tel.
Who owns Northwes Tel?..why Bell. 

....And that is a today's lesson in capitalism!


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## heyjude (May 16, 2009)

As with all innovation, there is a sigmoid curve of uptake, starting with the innovators and ending with the laggards. The shape of the curve is different for everything new, and some innovations never get off the ground at all. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffusion_of_innovations

I bought my first cell phone in 1995 prior to driving across Canada. Thought it might be useful if I had a flat in the middle of rural Saskatchewan! At the time, one of my colleagues asked "what could you possibly want that for?". I just smiled. Now, of course, every member of his family has one. He was a Late Majority adopter.


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## Plugging Along (Jan 3, 2011)

I remember In he 80's there was a 'big shot' realtor who had one, and we were Jin awe. I remember having to go home right after school to answer do phone calls to rent out my parents place. I also remember bringing my cordless phone (which was still relatively uncommon) to the park across the street so I could play. Everyone thought my family was rich thinking it was the news pest cell phone. Haha.... I think I was an early adopter before I finished grade school.

I got my first cell in 1997 right after I was a victim of a home invasion at gun point. The 911 operator locked my phone, when I called, and didn't unlock it after the whole ordeal. I was so freaked out, my boyfriend bought me a phone so I could call for help if something like that ever happened again. I have had my trusty cell since, and it has made a fair share of emergency calls. I will always own at least one cell.


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## carverman (Nov 8, 2010)

Plugging Along said:


> I got my first cell in 1997 right after I was a victim of a home invasion at gun point.


Another reason, where a cell phone comes in handy. Or if you are stuck with a car breakdown or flat tire at night on a highway somewhere. I used to go out of town to the trailer park
about 100km away and being disabled, not being able to change my tires anymore, I was glad to have CAA and cell phone service with me, in case I needed it. Sure, I guess I could
flag down a motorist to help, if I didn't have a cell phone with me, but not everyone will stop these days on the highway, and at night it is very hard to get anyone to stop....jumping
out in front of a car's headlights can be very dangerous, not to mention panicking the oncoming driver if you start waving your hands, like a deer in the headlights.

I just recently went to a Voip home phone because it's a bit cheaper for me, but still retain my cell phone as a "pay-as-you-go" arrangement.
A couple weeks ago, my scooter broke down and it was very cold up here in Ottawa. Having my cell phone, I was able to call a friend to come and help me get me and my scooter back home, so we could repair it. 

Although I do have 911 service on the Voip home phone,because it works off my internet modem,in an event of a power outage..I would not be able to make a call on it
for any 911 emergency...so another reason to keep a cell phone handy.


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## Daniel A. (Mar 20, 2011)

For myself a cell phone is just another tool that allows people to get in touch with me.
No sitting waiting for service people to show up just call me when they are 20 minutes away.

My cell costs me 25.00 a month, I don't text and spend enough time in front of my computer.

Just picked up a Magic Jack Plus after using a friends in Mexico great way to stay in touch for my six months down there in winter.
I also carry a local phone in Mexico cost of the cell down there was 25.00 and pay as I go.


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## carverman (Nov 8, 2010)

Just heard on the news this morning that a HTC version of the Android is now being marketed with Facebook.


> The rumored Facebook smartphone - HTC First is claimed to be a mid-range offering boasting a 4.3 inch 720p display, 1.5GHz dual core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, 1GB RAM, Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean OS, *5MP rear camera, 1.6MP front camera*, 16GB internal storage, 1GB RAM, no micro SD card slot, Wi-Fi, 3G and Bluetooth 4.0. Further, the smartphone is also claimed in various reports to come in multiple colors.


There it is folks..the next generation of cell phone that has two cameras so you can see the person you are talking to..and they can see you. 
Great idea..but somehow with the attention span (or inattention span) of teenagers walking while talking..it may result in more pedestrian accidents.


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