Mobile phones

BACK in 1973, a Motorola employee walking the streets of New York City couldn’t have imagined the far-reaching impact that walk would have in the future. He was talking on a cordless telephone and New Yorkers were amazed. Bear in mind that the first television broadcast in South Africa took place only in January 1976, so this was indeed a remarkably futuristic event – nearly as remarkable as the moon landing a few years earlier.

BREAKTHROUGH

Martin Cooper was a department manager at American multinational telecommunications company Motorola. Together with a team of engineers and designers, he was responsible for designing and developing the first wireless, portable phone. The brick-sized device was the ancient ancestor of the modern smartphone.