{"id":74677,"date":"2013-04-03T21:00:43","date_gmt":"2013-04-03T19:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=74677"},"modified":"2013-04-04T09:27:51","modified_gmt":"2013-04-04T07:27:51","slug":"mobile-phone-turns-40","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/cellular\/74677-mobile-phone-turns-40.html","title":{"rendered":"Mobile phone turns 40"},"content":{"rendered":"

The mobile phone turned 40 on Wednesday, with no fanfare to mark the occasion in a market which seemed focused on new smartphones like the iPhone<\/a> and a possible Facebook<\/a>-themed device.<\/p>\n

The first mobile call was placed April 3, 1973, by Motorola<\/a> engineer Martin Cooper, head of a team working on mobile communication technologies.<\/p>\n

Cooper made the call on Sixth Avenue in New York, before going into a press conference using a Motorola DynaTAC — a device that weighed one kilogram, (2.2 pounds) and had a battery life of 20 minutes, according to Motorola.<\/p>\n

Cooper told the technology website The Verge last year that he placed the first call to a rival, Joel Engler of Bell Labs.<\/p>\n

“To this day, he resents what Motorola did in those days,” Cooper said.<\/p>\n

“They thought that we were a gnat, an obstacle… we believed in competition and lots of players. And we also believed — our religion was portables, because people are mobile. And here they were trying to make a car telephone and a monopoly on top of that. So that battle was the reason that we built that phone.”<\/p>\n

Cooper and his team were honored earlier this year with the Draper Prize by the National Academy of Engineering for their work.<\/p>\n

In 40 years, the industry has come a long way. Research firm IDC<\/a> predicts 900 million smartphones will be sold in 2013 — along with roughly the same number of more basic feature phones.<\/p>\n

And the phone has become a key advertising platform — eMarketer<\/a> said US mobile advertising spending grew 178 percent last year to $4.11 billion, and spending is expected to rise a further 77.3 percent to $7.29 billion in 2013.<\/p>\n