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Moto Celebrates 44 Years Since The First Mobile Phone Call

Moto Celebrates 44 Years Since The First Mobile Phone Call

By Mihai Matei
April 04, 2017

It’s been 44 years since Motorola made the first cell phone connection in history, and earlier this week, Moto Brazil reminded Twitter users of the company’s lineage in one GIF, showcasing some of its most iconic mobile devices including the one that made it all possible – the Motorola DynaTAC. In addition to being entertaining, the GIF provided a quick look at the company’s history and the way its mobile division evolved over the past several decades.

Back in 1973, Motorola’s Dr. Martin Cooper demonstrated the first private handheld mobile phone and made the first phone call in history using the Motorola DynaTAC. However, it took another decade for the first handheld mobile phone to hit the market, and in September 1983, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X for commercial use. This became the first handheld cellular device to ever hit the market, but it definitely wasn’t Motorola’s last. The company followed up on it with the analog version of the Motorola MicroTAC in 1989, and in the year 1994, Motorola launched a different version of the Motorola MicroTAC boasting GSM compatibility. The phone in question introduced a new design language which was later known as the “flip phone” and was succeeded by the iconic Motorola StarTAC in 1996. The Motorola StarTAC was the first mobile phone to adopt a clamshell design which went down in history as another iconic piece of consumer electronics. It was one of the first mobile phones to be adopted by a widespread audience, with roughly 60 million units sold. The Motorola StarTAC lineage would later give birth to another iconic mobile phone – the Motorola RAZR. The Motorola RAZR V3 was launched in 2004 and was among the last clamshell mobile phones to enjoy widespread popularity.

Nevertheless, the era of mobile phones was reaching an end around 2010 when smartphones became the next big thing, and in 2011, Motorola joined the party with its first-ever Android-powered smartphone – the Motorola Droid X. In recent years, the budget-friendly Moto M lineup earned a lot of fans, and the company continued to release new flagship phones every year. Today, Motorola’s mobile branch exists simply as “Moto” and it operates under Lenovo’s umbrella. At the moment, the company is said to be working on a new addition to its X series which was recently leaked in a handful of hands-on photos after being certified by the FCC in February.