The first handheld mobile phone call was made on a Motorola prototype
On this day · 3 April 1973
On April 3, 1973, a Motorola engineer stood on a Manhattan sidewalk and called his chief rival to gloat, cradling a two-and-a-half-pound brick.
On April 3, 1973, Motorola engineer Martin Cooper stood on Sixth Avenue in Manhattan, lifted a prototype to his ear, and placed the first public call from a handheld cellular phone. The device, a Motorola DynaTAC, weighed about 2.5 pounds and stood roughly a foot tall, earning it the nickname “the brick.”
Cooper dialed Joel Engel, who led the rival cellular effort at AT&T’s Bell Labs, and savored the moment.
“I’m calling you on a cell phone, but a real cell phone, a personal, handheld, portable cell phone.”
The call announced a decisive turn in a long contest. While AT&T pursued car phones tied to vehicles, Motorola bet that people wanted to carry a phone in their hand. The prototype was years from market; the commercial DynaTAC would not ship until 1983. But the demonstration proved the concept, and Cooper became known as the father of the handheld cell phone.
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