In 1983, the world's first mobile phone finally came out.
The world's first mobile phone, Motorola DynaTAC 8000X, weighed 2 pounds, had a talk time of half an hour, and sold for 3, At $995, it is truly the most expensive brick.
But in 1984, or for Rudy Krolopp, the designer of the DynaTAC 8000X, this phone was not expensive and could not be called a brick.
Krolopp, who has been retired for many years, is now 74 years old. When talking about DynaTAC 8000X, he was still energetic: "Our huge development team has created history."
The development cycle of DynaTAC 8000X lasted more than 10 years. At that time, Martin Cooper, who was responsible for the research and development of Motorola's wireless field and was later revered as the father of mobile phones, appointed Krolopp as the project team leader to be responsible for the development of the world's first mobile phone. There are always three people's names on the patent certificate of DynaTAC 8000X, Krolopp, Cooper and John Mitchell, the leader of Motorola's communications department at the time.
Krolopp recalled: "One day in December 1972, Martin called me into the office and said to me: 'We need to develop a mobile phone.' I responded in surprise: 'The mobile phone is What?'."
Kropper and his team accepted the project and were given six weeks to build a prototype of the mobile phone. The task was urgent because at that time the US Federal Communications Commission was considering whether to allow AT&T to establish a mobile network and provide wireless services in the US market. Moreover, AT&T also has its own mobile phone development plan. Motorola is unwilling to let a great business opportunity slip away.
Finally, Krolopp and his team submitted a concept model of the world's first mobile phone. Krolopp recalled: "We put the model into the hands of engineers. All eight people in the room felt that the model was too small. So we made a rule that anyone who questioned the size of the product should get out immediately."
No one left the room. After 10 years of development work and a cost of US$100 million, the world's first mobile phone was finally launched in 1983. Of course, building base stations is also a major reason for launch delays.
Seeing Motorola’s current Razr V3 mobile phone, Krolopp expressed his sincere sigh for the rapid development of technology. At the same time, he also pointed out that current products are just the tip of the iceberg in the long history of mobile phone development. Krolopp said: "We were able to design an appearance like the Razr V3 at that time, but it was absolutely impossible to make the battery, antenna, and keyboard so small. The development of technology is really changing with each passing day!"