Motorola DynaTAC

Dr. Martin Cooper of Motorola made the first private handheld mobile phone call on a larger prototype model in 1973. This is a reenactment in 2007.

DynaTAC is a series of cellular telephones manufactured by Motorola, Inc. from 1983 to 1994. With several different models, plus newer models under the Classic and Ultra Classic names, it was the first line of cell phones commercially produced by Motorola, with the first member of the DynaTAC series, the 8000x, being the first cell phone to receive U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) acceptance in 1983.^[1] DynaTAC was actually an abbreviation of Dynamic Adaptive Total Area Coverage.

History

The first cellular phone was the culmination of efforts begun at Bell Labs, which first proposed the idea of a cellular system in 1947, and continued to petition the FCC for channels through the 1950s and 1960s, and research conducted at Motorola. In 1960, John F. Mitchell, an electrical engineer who graduated from the Illinois Institute of Technology, became Motorola's chief engineer for its mobile communication products. Mitchell oversaw the development and marketing of the first pager to use transistors.

Motorola had long produced mobile telephones for automobiles, that were large and heavy and consumed too much power to allow their use without the automobile's engine running. Mitchell's team developed portable cellular telephony, and Mitchell was among the Motorola employees granted a patent for this work in 1973; the first call on the prototype was completed, reportedly, to a wrong number.^[2][3] While Motorola was developing the cellular phone itself, during 1968-1983, Bell Labs worked on the system called AMPS, which became the first cellular network in the U.S. Motorola and others designed cell phones for that and other cellular systems. Martin Cooper, a former general manager for the systems division at Motorola led a team that produced the DynaTAC8000x, first commercially available cellular phone small enough to be easily carried, and made the first phone call from it. The DynaTAC's retail price, $3,995 ($8807 in present-day terms^[4]), ensured that it would not become a mass-market item; by 1998, when Mitchell retired, cellphones and associated services made up two thirds of Motorola's $30 billion in revenue.^[5]

On October 13, 1983, Bob Barnett, former president of Ameritech Mobile Communications placed the first commercial wireless call on a DynaTAC from inside a Chrysler convertible to the grandson of Alexander Graham Bell who was in Germany for the event. The call, made at Soldier Field in Chicago, is considered by many as a major turning point in communications. Later Richard Frenkiel, the head of system development at Bell Laboratories, said about the DynaTAC: "It was a real triumph; a great breakthrough."^[6]

Description

Several prototypes were made between 1973 and 1983. The product accepted by the FCC weighed 28 ounces (790 g) and was 10 inches (25 cm) high, not including its flexible "rubber duck" whip antenna. In addition to the typical 12-key telephone keypad, it had nine additional special keys:

• Rcl (recall)
• Clr (clear)
• Snd (send)
• Sto (store)
• Fcn (function)
• End
• Pwr (power)
• Lock
• Vol (volume)

A DynaTAC 8000X

The DynaTAC 8 Series, Classic, Classic II, Ultra Classic, and Ultra Classic II utilized a display with red LEDs; the DynaTAC International Series with green LEDs, and the DynaTAC 6000XL used a vacuum fluorescent display. These displays were severely limited in what information they could show. The battery allowed for a call of up to 60 minutes, after which it was necessary to charge the phone up to 10 hours in a trickle charger or one hour in a fast charger which was a separate accessory.^[7] While still retaining the DynaTAC name, the 6000XL was completely unrelated to the DynaTAC 8000 Series, in that it was a transportable phone meant for installation in a vehicle.

The DynaTAC Series was succeeded by the MicroTAC Series in 1989.

Legacy

With the removal of analog network cells nearly all over the world, the DynaTAC models running on AMPS or other analog networks are mostly obsolete. Thus, they are more collectors' items than usable telephones. The International series, however, will still work, but only on GSM 900 cells.

Portability

While it might be considered extremely unwieldy by today's standards, at the time it was considered revolutionary, because mobile telephones were bulky affairs installed in vehicles, or in heavy briefcases. The DynaTAC 8000X was truly the first mobile telephone which could connect to the telephone network without the assistance of a mobile operator and could be carried about by the user.

Model list

• 1983 DynaTAC 8000x
• 1985 DynaTAC 8000s
• 1987 DynaTAC 8000m, 8500x, 8800x
• 1987 DynaTAC 6000XL (car phone)
• 1989 DynaTAC 8900x
• 1992 DynaTAC America series
• 1994 DynaTAC International 3200/3300 (GSM)
• Classic
• Classic II
• Ultra Classic
• 1994 Ultra Classic II

Accessories

In certain markets, a brass swivel antenna was one of the after-market accessories then available. It was used by Henry Thia in the film Money No Enough, where he made a call on a 8000x complete with swivel antenna.

Motorola also offered a one-hour desktop charger, though the battery could get quite hot while charging at this accelerated rate.

In popular culture

The DynaTAC has become associated with the 1980s in popular culture, and has been heavily used in film and media set in that period.

The phone is well known for being used by Gordon Gekko in Wall Street, and Tommy Vercetti in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. It is also used by Patrick Bateman in American Psycho. The phones have been given the nickname "Zack Morris phones" because of their heavy use by the central character in the sitcom Saved by the Bell.

Motorola DynaTAC phones have been prominently featured alongside their more-modern cousin Motorola RAZR in the second-season episode "Peter" of the TV show Fringe.

In the 1993 Hanna-Barbara cartoon SWAT Kats, it was seen once being used by Commander Feral.

The phone was also seen in 2009 TV series The Electric Company. It was owned by the Prankster, Manny Spambonni. This fictional model has a bigger screen below the keypad and was capable of texting and taking pictures.

In 2010, the phone was seen in an ad for New Zealand insurance company, Pinnacle Life. The ad depicted a fictional character, Molly, who was happy with her old insurance plan, but it was so expensive that she still had to use her Motorola DynaTAC 8000x from 1983.

In an episode of the 2010 Cartoon Network series Regular Show, Mordecai and Rigby use two Motorola DynaTAC 8000x from Pops to prank call the Master Prank-Caller.

In the 1996 movie The People vs. Larry Flynt, Edward Norton, playing Alan Isaacman, can be seen using the phone at the end, telling Larry Flynt they won the case Hustler Magazine v. Falwell.

In the Doctor Who Big Finish audio drama Crime of the Century, the East End gangster Markus Creevy (Ricky Groves) marvels at the size and portability of the DynaTAC 8000x.

References

1. ^ "Motorola DynaTAC 8000x". Retro Brick. http://www.retrobrick.com/moto8000.html. Retrieved 2007-06-07. 
2. ^ Motorola Executive Helped Spur Cellular Revolution, Oversaw Ill-fated Iridium Project, Wall Street Journal, Remembrances, June 20–21, 2009, p. A10
3. ^ John F. Mitchell, 1928-2009: Was president of Motorola from 1980 to '95, Chicago Tribune, June 17, 2009, retrieved June 20, 2009
4. ^ Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–2008. Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. Retrieved December 7, 2010.
5. ^ John F. Mitchell, Time Magazine Milestones section, July 6, 2009, p.17
6. ^ Oehmke, Ted (January^"20th Anniversary of the World's First Commercial Cellular Phone". Motorola. http://motoinfo.motorola.com/motoinfo/20th_anniversary/photos.asp?year=2. Retrieved 2007-06-07. 

   6, 2000). "Cell Phones Ruin the Opera? Meet the Culprit". New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F04EED8173BF935A35752C0A9669C8B63. Retrieved 2009-05-26.