Motorola DynaTAC
Encyclopedia
Mobile phone
A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...
manufactured by Motorola, Inc.
Motorola
Motorola, Inc. was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, which was eventually divided into two independent public companies, Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions on January 4, 2011, after losing $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009...
from 1983 to 1994. With several different models, plus newer models under the Classic and Ultra Classic names, it was the first line of cell phones commercially produced by Motorola, with the first member of the DynaTAC series, the 8000x, being the first cell phone to receive U.S. Federal Communications Commission
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
(FCC) acceptance in 1983. DynaTAC was actually an abbreviation of Dynamic Adaptive Total Area Coverage.
History
The first cellular phone was the culmination of efforts begun at Bell LabsBell Labs
Bell Laboratories is the research and development subsidiary of the French-owned Alcatel-Lucent and previously of the American Telephone & Telegraph Company , half-owned through its Western Electric manufacturing subsidiary.Bell Laboratories operates its...
, which first proposed the idea of a cellular system in 1947, and continued to petition the FCC for channels through the 1950s and 1960s, and research conducted at Motorola
Motorola
Motorola, Inc. was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, which was eventually divided into two independent public companies, Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions on January 4, 2011, after losing $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009...
. In 1960, John F. Mitchell, an electrical engineer who graduated from the Illinois Institute of Technology
Illinois Institute of Technology
Illinois Institute of Technology, commonly called Illinois Tech or IIT, is a private Ph.D.-granting university located in Chicago, Illinois, with programs in engineering, science, psychology, architecture, business, communications, industrial technology, information technology, design, and law...
, became Motorola's chief engineer for its mobile communication products. Mitchell oversaw the development and marketing of the first pager
Pager
A pager is a simple personal telecommunications device for short messages. A one-way numeric pager can only receive a message consisting of a few digits, typically a phone number that the user is then requested to call...
to use transistors.
Motorola had long produced mobile telephone
Radiotelephone
A radiotelephone is a communications system for transmission of speech over radio. Radiotelephone systems are not necessarily interconnected with the public "land line" telephone network. "Radiotelephone" is often used to describe the usage of radio spectrum where it is important to distinguish the...
s for automobiles, that were large and heavy and consumed too much power to allow their use without the automobile's engine running. Mitchell's team developed portable cellular telephony, and Mitchell was among the Motorola employees granted a patent
Patent
A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
for this work in 1973; the first call on the prototype was completed, reportedly, to a wrong number. While Motorola was developing the cellular phone itself, during 1968-1983, Bell Labs worked on the system called AMPS
Advanced Mobile Phone System
Advanced Mobile Phone System was an analog mobile phone system standard developed by Bell Labs, and officially introduced in the Americas in 1983, Israel in 1986, and Australia in 1987. It was the primary analog mobile phone system in North America through the 1980s and into the 2000s...
, which became the first cellular network in the U.S. Motorola and others designed cell phones for that and other cellular systems. Martin Cooper, a former general manager for the systems division at Motorola led a team that produced the DynaTAC8000x, first commercially available cellular phone small enough to be easily carried, and made the first phone call from it. The DynaTAC's retail price, $3,995 ($ in present-day terms), ensured that it would not become a mass-market item; by 1998, when Mitchell retired, cellphones and associated services made up two thirds of Motorola's $30 billion in revenue.
On October 13, 1983, Bob Barnett, former president of Ameritech Mobile Communications placed the first commercial wireless call on a DynaTAC from inside a Chrysler convertible to the grandson of Alexander Graham Bell
Alexander Graham Bell
Alexander Graham Bell was an eminent scientist, inventor, engineer and innovator who is credited with inventing the first practical telephone....
who was in Germany for the event. The call, made at Soldier Field in Chicago, is considered by many as a major turning point in communications. Later Richard Frenkiel, the head of system development at Bell Laboratories, said about the DynaTAC: "It was a real triumph; a great breakthrough."
Description
Several prototypes were made between 1973 and 1983. The product accepted by the FCC weighed 28 ounces (790 g) and was 10 inches (25 cm) high, not including its flexible "rubber duck" whip antennaWhip antenna
A whip antenna is an antenna consisting of a single straight flexible wire or rod, often mounted above some type of conducting surface called a ground plane. The bottom end of the whip is connected to the radio receiver or transmitter. They are designed to be flexible so that they won't break...
. In addition to the typical 12-key telephone keypad, it had nine additional special keys:
- Rcl (recall)
- Clr (clear)
- Snd (send)
- Sto (store)
- Fcn (function)
- End
- Pwr (power)
- Lock
- Vol (volume)
LEd
LEd is a TeX/LaTeX editing software working under Microsoft Windows. It is a freeware product....
s; the DynaTAC International Series with green LEDs, and the DynaTAC 6000XL used a vacuum fluorescent display
Vacuum fluorescent display
A vacuum fluorescent display is a display device used commonly on consumer-electronics equipment such as video cassette recorders, car radios, and microwave ovens. Invented in Japan in 1967, the displays became common on calculators and other consumer electronics devices...
. These displays were severely limited in what information they could show. The battery allowed for a call of up to 60 minutes, after which it was necessary to charge the phone up to 10 hours in a trickle charger
Trickle charging
Trickle charging, or float charging, means charging a battery at a similar rate as its self-discharging rate, thus maintaining a full capacity battery. Most rechargeable batteries, particularly nickel-cadmium batteries or nickel metal hydride batteries, have a moderate rate of self-discharge,...
or one hour in a fast charger which was a separate accessory.
While still retaining the DynaTAC name, the 6000XL was completely unrelated to the DynaTAC 8000 Series, in that it was a transportable phone meant for installation in a vehicle.
The DynaTAC Series was succeeded by the MicroTAC Series
Motorola MicroTAC
The Motorola MicroTAC was a cellular phone first manufactured as an analog phone in 1989. The GSM-compatible and TDMA/Dual-Mode phones were introduced in 1994. The MicroTAC introduced an innovative new "flip" design, where the "mouthpiece" folded over the keypad, although the "mouthpiece" was...
in 1989.
Legacy
With the removal of analog network cells nearly all over the world, the DynaTAC models running on AMPS or other analog networks are mostly obsolete. Thus, they are more collectors' items than usable telephones. The International series, however, will still work, but only on GSM 900 cells.Portability
While it might be considered extremely unwieldy by today's standards, at the time it was considered revolutionary, because mobile telephones were bulky affairs installed in vehicles, or in heavy briefcases. The DynaTAC 8000X was truly the first mobile telephone which could connect to the telephone network without the assistance of a mobile operator and could be carried about by the user.Model list
- 1983 DynaTAC 8000x
- 1985 DynaTAC 8000s
- 1987 DynaTAC 8000m, 8500x, 8800x
- 1987 DynaTAC 6000XL (car phone)
- 1989 DynaTAC 8900x
- 1992 DynaTAC America series
- 1994 DynaTAC International 3200Motorola International 3200The Motorola International 3200 was the first digital hand-size mobile telephone introduced in 1992, along with the more compact 5200, 7200 and 7500 "flip phones" introduced in 1994...
/3300 (GSM) - Classic
- Classic II
- Ultra Classic
- 1994 Ultra Classic II
Accessories
In certain markets, a brass swivel antenna was one of the after-market accessories then available. It was used by Henry ThiaHenry Thia
Henry Thia is a Singaporean actor who is probably best known for his roles in Money No Enough and Police & Thief as Hui and Georgie Gan respectively...
in the film Money No Enough
Money No Enough
Money No Enough is a Singaporean comedy film about three friends with financial problems who start a car polishing business together. Written by Jack Neo, directed by Tay Teck Lock and produced by JSP Films, the movie stars Neo, Mark Lee and Henry Thia...
, where he made a call on a 8000x complete with swivel antenna.
Motorola also offered a one-hour desktop charger, though the battery could get quite hot while charging at this accelerated rate.
In popular culture
The DynaTAC has become associated with the 1980s in popular culture, and has been heavily used in film and media set in that period.The phone is well known for being used by Gordon Gekko
Gordon Gekko
Gordon Gekko is the main antagonist of the 1987 film Wall Street and the antihero of the 2010 film Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, both by director Oliver Stone...
in Wall Street, and Tommy Vercetti in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is a 2002 open world action computer and video game developed by British games developer Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It is the second 3D game in the Grand Theft Auto video game franchise and sixth original title overall...
. It is also used by Patrick Bateman
Patrick Bateman
Patrick Bateman is a fictional character, the antihero and narrator of the novel American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis, and its film adaptation. He has also briefly appeared in other Ellis novels.-Biography and profile:...
in American Psycho
American Psycho (film)
American Psycho is a 2000 cult thriller film directed by Mary Harron based on Bret Easton Ellis's novel of the same name. Though predominantly a psycho thriller, the film also blends elements of horror, satire, and black comedy...
. The phones have been given the nickname "Zack Morris
Zack Morris
Zachary "Zack" Morris is a fictional character from the sitcoms Good Morning, Miss Bliss; Saved by the Bell; and Saved by the Bell: The College Years. He was portrayed by Mark-Paul Gosselaar...
phones" because of their heavy use by the central character in the sitcom Saved by the Bell
Saved by the Bell
Saved by the Bell is an American television sitcom that aired between 1989 and 1993. The series is a retooled version of the 1988 series Good Morning, Miss Bliss, which was itself later folded into the history of Saved by the Bell...
.
Motorola DynaTAC phones have been prominently featured alongside their more-modern cousin Motorola RAZR in the second-season episode "Peter" of the TV show Fringe
Fringe (TV series)
Fringe is an American science fiction television series created by J. J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. The series follows a Federal Bureau of Investigation "Fringe Division" team based in Boston, Massachusetts under the supervision of Homeland Security...
.
In the 1993 Hanna-Barbara cartoon SWAT Kats
SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron
SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron is an animated series for television created by Christian and Yvon Tremblay and produced by Hanna-Barbera and Turner Program Services. Every episode of the series was directed by Robert Alvarez. The bulk of the series was written by either Glenn Leopold or Lance Falk...
, it was seen once being used by Commander Feral.
The phone was also seen in 2009 TV series The Electric Company
The Electric Company (2009 TV series)
The Electric Company is an American children's educational series for young children aged 4–8 on PBS, derived from the 1971 series. The series premiered as a four-episode mini-marathon on PBS on January 19, 2009, then became a weekly series with an episode shown each Friday. On September 7, 2009,...
. It was owned by the Prankster, Manny Spambonni. This fictional model has a bigger screen below the keypad and was capable of texting and taking pictures.
In 2010, the phone was seen in an ad for New Zealand insurance company, Pinnacle Life. The ad depicted a fictional character, Molly, who was happy with her old insurance plan, but it was so expensive that she still had to use her Motorola DynaTAC 8000x from 1983.
In an episode of the 2010 Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network is a name of television channels worldwide created by Turner Broadcasting which used to primarily show animated programming. The channel began broadcasting on October 1, 1992 in the United States....
series Regular Show
Regular Show
Regular Show is an American animated television series created by J. G. Quintel...
, Mordecai and Rigby use two Motorola DynaTAC 8000x from Pops to prank call the Master Prank-Caller.
In the 1996 movie The People vs. Larry Flynt
The People vs. Larry Flynt
The People vs. Larry Flynt is a 1996 American biographical drama film directed by Miloš Forman about the rise of pornographic magazine publisher and editor Larry Flynt, and his subsequent clash with the law. The film stars Woody Harrelson, Courtney Love, and Edward Norton.The film was written by...
, Edward Norton, playing Alan Isaacman, can be seen using the phone at the end, telling Larry Flynt they won the case Hustler Magazine v. Falwell
Hustler Magazine v. Falwell
In Hustler Magazine, Inc. v. Falwell, 485 U.S. 46 , the United States Supreme Court held, in a unanimous 8–0 decision , that the First Amendment's free-speech guarantee prohibits awarding damages to public figures to compensate for emotional distress intentionally inflicted upon them.Thus,...
.
In the Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
Big Finish
Big Finish Productions
Big Finish Productions is a British company that produces books and audio plays based, primarily, on cult British science fiction properties...
audio drama Crime of the Century
Crime Of The Century (Doctor Who audio)
Crime Of The Century is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. -Plot:...
, the East End gangster Markus Creevy (Ricky Groves
Ricky Groves
Richard "Ricky" Groves is an English actor best known for playing Garry Hobbs in EastEnders from 2000–09. Before his role in EastEnders he appeared in the series Burnside, a spin-off from The Bill.-Other TV work:...
) marvels at the size and portability of the DynaTAC 8000x.