Mobile phone is 40 year old now: Facts and future

It's the 40th anniversary of mobile phones; some 'forgotten' facts

From the brick phones to slender slim iPhone and Galaxy phones of today, mobiles have come a long way. From being a luxury possession mobile phones have become a necessity, they come in different forms and enable multitasking.

Here are few interesting facts from the 40-year-old mobile history:

• In April 1973, Motorola employee Martin Cooper made a call in New York on a Motorola DynaTAC - widely regarded globally as the first public cellphone call.
• Motorola DynaTAC (The Brick) was nine inches longl, comprised 30 circuit boards, had a talk-time of 35 minutes, and took 10 hours to recharge.
• Motorola DynaTAC 8000X, weighed 785g (28oz) and measured a colossal 300 x 44 x 89mm (13 x 1.75 x 3.5in)
• The first call was revived by Joel Engel, who was head of research at Bell Labs and also committed to developing the first mobile phone.
• The first text message was sent by a 22-year-old engineer Neil Papworth on 3 December 1992.
• The first message was to wish "Merry Christmas". He sent Vodafone's Richard Jarvis the festive greeting on Jarvis's Orbitel 901 mobile phone.
• The famous Nokia tune is actually a phrase from a 1902 composition by Spanish classical guitarist and composer Francisco Tarrega, called Gran Vals.
• Philippe Kahn is credited with creating the first camera phone and transmitting the first publicly shared photo in 1997
• The most expensive telephone number sold at auction cost 10 million Qatari Riyals (then £1.46m; $2.75m). The number was 666-6666
• According to the Guinness World Records, the world's thinnest 3G mobile phone, Samsung's Ultra Edition 8.4 Z370, weighed just 71g (2.5oz).

The road ahead:

Dr Mike Short past President of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), and mobile industry veteran, says the coming years will see mobile innovation continue to change our lives.

The increasing demand to connect people has led to a growth in devices for both work and leisure. Connected machines are also now becoming much more prevalent.

"With close to 7 billion customers today, we already expect this year globally more mobile devices (or subscriptions) than people" said Dr Mike Short.