Cell Phones, 45 years later
Very few people remember how it happened and what happened but, without a doubt, that seemed crazy and more than one person in New York did not believe what they saw. Others thought that Martin Cooper had gone completely mad with that device on his ears that simulated a huge box.
The American engineer living in New York gave birth to one of the most extraordinary devices of the last decade of humanity: the cell phone. At that time Motorola, the firm for which Cooper worked, did not dream how that artifact would become an inalienable part of today’s society.
It was on April 3, 1973, in New York, when Martin with Dynatac, acronym of Dynamic Adaptive Total Area Coverage, began the current revolution and at the same time war to lead the telephone technology that goes from telephone services to telecommunications’ infrastructure. In that first moment, it should had be foreseen what would come next, a real battle of manufacturers, engineers and users, to show the most advanced mobile with the best services. In that historic moment Cooper sent a direct message to Bell Labs researcher Joel Engel, his direct rival, in which he said: "We at Motorola did it, cell phone is a reality."
At that time the Dynatac’s model weighed more than one kilogram, had no screen, a recharge time of ten hours and only 35 minutes of operational autonomy, technical aspects that have been improved over the years; if one feature distinguishes modern cell phones is its light weight and thinness. In addition, among the advantages that mobile phones must currently have is the battery's autonomy and duration. Apple, one of the market leaders, has been criticized multiple times for the short battery life of their devices. There is still much work to be done on this regard, which will be difficult to solve while high-generation microprocessors continue to consume more and more energy.
Historical sources reveal that Cooper’s creation ended a rivalry that dated back to 1947 from the two thriving telephone companies of that time: Bell and Motorola; the "miracle" gave finally Motorola the victory. It would take 17 years for people to "benefit" from the singular innovation. At that time it was a luxury and for many a waste of time to spend on.
If today we complain about the prices of Iphone, those who do not remember the l DynaTac 8000X cost was $ 3,995, representing 9322 dollars today. Luckily for us times have changed, although sometimes Apple managers with Iphone prices seem to live in the past. Maybe that's why it took seven years to reach the first million users, but after an imposing acceleration, there currently are billions of people connected and the first apparent signs of the market’s saturation.
Since then, technological innovation in mobile telephony has not stopped. And more than one consolidated leader has fallen, as happened with Black Berry and Nokia. The market for mobile technology is hostile and extremely competitive, but nobody risks abandoning the race that each year represents great dividends for all the players in an industry that monopolizes several branches of technology.
On one hand there are mobile manufacturers that in recent years have intensified innovations. Apple, Samsung and Huawei are some of the world leaders who try to surprise users almost monthly. News like the double camera and their high resolution; the audio system; the transmission of data; the processing speed; design; and the ergonomic characteristics and materials are some of the points exploited by these companies for their positioning in the market.
On the other hand and as support are the producers of microprocessors, batteries and other hardware that are used by manufacturers. Qualcomm currently leads the microprocessor market. In addition, translated services in applications is another of the battlefields. Google, Apple, Microsoft and now Huawei take out every day the creations of their engineers that allow from using GPS in the mobile to the processing of video games, augmented reality and the reproduction of high quality videos while, and no less important, there are the telecommunications infrastructure companies that have already begun the race to position themselves in the 5G networks.
Undoubtedly, "the shoe box" has given much to talk about and in the near future will increase humans need of mobiles. If biology teachers thought the human body is divided into head, trunk and limbs, many believe the cell phone is the brain.
