The First Handheld Cell Phone Call

40 years ago, Martin Cooper made the first call from a handheld cellular telephone (and he made it quick, because the 2-pound "brick" could only manage about 20-30 minutes of talk time). Working at Motorola at the time, Cooper decided to call a competitor at Bell Labs and rub it in a bit. In this short video, you'll hear Cooper describe his invention, plus his thoughts about how cell phones have changed over the years.

Representative quote: "If you try to build a device that does all things for all people...it won't do any of them very well. I think that's where we are with cell phones today." Enjoy:

It took Cooper's invention 10 years to reach the market, in the form of the DynaTAC 8000x. It's important to note that Cooper's invention was the handheld cell phone–car phones came earlier.