Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ), Vodafone Group Plc (ADR) (VOD): 2 Major Mobile Milestones

His first call went through to AT&T’s Bell Labs, where he got in a bit of gloating to rival researcher Joel Engel for having won the mobile-phone race. After this one-upsmanship was over, Cooper decided to keep going. He recalled that morning in an interview 38 years later with London’s Daily Mail:

As I walked down the street while talking on the phone, sophisticated New Yorkers gaped at the sight of someone actually moving around while making a phone call. Remember that in 1973, there weren’t cordless telephones, let alone cellular phones.

I made numerous calls, including one where I crossed the street while talking to a New York radio reporter — probably one of the more dangerous things I have ever done in my life.

It took Motorola another decade before it could commercialize cellphones in the form of the DynaTAC, which was to be the first mobile phone ever sold to the public. From then on, the mobile industry would grow by leaps and bounds to the point where there are now more mobile phones active around the world than there are humans alive to use them.

Motorola’s early lead in the mobile race soon grew into an enormous patent portfolio, which proved too good for Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) to pass up when it acquired the handset maker in 2011. With more than 25,000 patents and patents pending, it’s safe to say that Motorola has continued developing mobile technology with as much focus as (if not more than) any other company on the planet. It’s also been an industry leader: Before the rise of smartphones, Motorola’s RAZR line of flip phones sold more than 130 million units, making it the best-selling example of the design in mobile history.

The article Two Major Mobile Milestones originally appeared on Fool.com is written by Alex Planes.

Fool contributor Alex Planes holds no financial position in any company mentioned here. Add him on Google+ or follow him on Twitter @TMFBiggles for more insight into markets, history, and technology. The Motley Fool recommends Google and Vodafone. The Motley Fool owns shares of Google.

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