Mobile phone

A mobile phone is a type of telephone that has portable capabilities due to its ability to access a cellular radio system for telecommunications purposes rather than being physically connected to a network. Mobile phones transmit radio waves through a network of base stations, which are composed of fixed antennas. They are used for communication purposes and relay voice calls and send text messages. Some mobile phones, such as smartphones, have additional capabilities, such as access to the internet and mobile applications.

In 1908, the first patent for a mobile phone was registered in the United States, but there was not much development with the device for several decades. In the 1940s, major telecommunications companies developed the concept of "cells" for communication, which were areas mapped out on a grid for mobile phone base stations that take the form of tall, narrow towers.

Two-way radios were initially used in the capacity in which mobile phones are used today. They communicated through one powerful cell base station and generally were used in a limited capacity for industries that rely on instant communication, such as taxi drivers and emergency services.

Inventor Martin Cooper with the first mobile phone.

In 1973, the first phone call was made from a portable device using cell towers. An engineer from Motorola, Martin Cooper, leveraged a cellular network that had been developed by Bell Labs to connect a cellular phone that he and his team at Motorola had developed.

This mobile phone became available for commercial service in 1983 by Motorola. It was called DynaTAC and weighed 2.4 pounds, was over 9 inches long, and took 10 hours to charge for 30 minutes of talk time (mobile phones today weigh approximately 200 grams and are six inches long on average). It was priced at $3,995, which would be approximately $10,000 in 2023.

Throughout the 1980s, more mobile phones were launched by other telecommunication companies, such as Siemens, Nokia, and Samsung. In the 1990s, mobile phones started becoming more compact, with the concept of a flip phone being introduced, along with additional features, such as text messaging. In the 2000s, even more features were added to mobile phones, such as Bluetooth capabilities and cameras.

Telecommunications companies continued developing and adding features to mobile phones, and in 2007, Apple launched the first iPhone, making mobile phones not only portable phones but also portable computers. These types of mobile phones are known as smartphones and have a touchscreen-based interface rather than physical buttons that had been used for the production of mobile phones leading up to the launch of smartphones. Smartphones are a type of mobile phone, but not all mobile phones are smartphones, as simpler mobile phones are still available, such as flip phones meant solely for calls and texting.