Motorola’s DynaTAC 8000x was created by Martin Cooper.
Almost 4,000 dollars cost the first mobile that was marketed in the world, a DynaTAC 8000x, from the brand Motorolawhose development then cost more than 100 million dollars and that this 2023 meets 40 years of life.
A model that allowed 30 hours of conversation, after a battery charge of 8 hours, and that can be seen in the Samsung Innovation Museum (SIM)located in Suwon (Korea), dedicated to the history of electronics, which includes everything from the creations of Michael Faraday, Thomas Edison and Graham Bell, to more recent ones.
The commercialization of this cell phone, the details of which are shown in this exhibition, was the result of a decade of research. Last April 3 marked the 50th anniversary of that first call he made Martin Cooperits creator, to Joel Engel, a competition researcher.
Cooper picked up a cell phone to say, “Joel, I’m calling from a cell phone. From a real one.” Silence was the response he got. Ten years later, this cell phone began to be marketed after an investment of 100 million dollars.
Forty years after it was put on the market, this device has become one of humanity’s great revolutions, even surpassing the landline telephone.
Cellphone an average of five hours a day is used and, assuming a person sleeps an average of 7-8 hours per day, the figures indicate that users spend 30% of their waking lives using their phones, according to the Digital Global Summary Report 2023, produced by Datareportal in collaboration with Meltwater and We Are Social.
a museum piece
The history of the mobile phone and telephony in general can be seen at the SIM in Suwon, a city south of Seoul, where Samsung is headquartered and where this device that was marketed in 1983 is exhibited along with many others who have marked the history of electronics.
Thus, you can see the first cell phone developed by Samsung, which came out before the Summer Olympic Games in this city, and which has turned 35; in addition to the first folding, which was launched 34 years ago, also from Motorola, a model that folded about the keyboard and that was the origin of today’s foldables.
The museum, with five floors, 10,950 square meters, is not only dedicated to telephones, but in it you can contemplate the history of electronics in general. The first Maytag electric washing machine, model 41, dating from 1911; as well as the first refrigerator, which dates from 1929, and which was launched by General Electric are other devices that can be seen.
The wireless telegraph Marconi (1986) and Edison’s first filament lamp (1900) are many more of these devices found in this museum, which EFE was able to visit on a trip organized by Samsung.
Samsung is one of the flagship companies in South Korea, where it employs more than 50,000 people.
The electronics giant Samsung opened this museum in the south of Seoul in 2014 with the aim of showing visitors the origin of the technology currently used. and serve as inspiration for future innovations.