Over the years, the mobile phone technology has changed rapidly, and it advances with a geometric progression rather than an arithmetical one. A decade ago, mobile phones weighed and looked like the size of a house brick. In a blink of an eye, today’s mobile phones are so small and thin that they fits perfect in your chest pocket.
I kowtow to the inventor of the cellular phone. Without him, we wouldn’t be able to enjoy the luxury of making cordless phone calls, sending text messages, listening to songs, or even indulging in a game of Plants vs. Zombies — all with this tiny pocketable gadget.
His name is Martin Cooper, and he was a vice president and division manager who led the Motorola team that developed the handheld mobile phone back in 1973. Although he often credits the invention to his wife, but the 81-year-old humble man is still widely regarded as the main figure behind the invention of the mobile phone.
The early cell phone pioneer admitted both in a C-SPAN interview (video below) and on Twitter that he has temporarily switched from his Apple’s iPhone to a Motorola Droid. The gist of the 32-minute long interview was regarding Cooper’s thoughts and opinions on the wireless spectrum and politics involved, as well as the argument that cell phones might cause cancer.
Towards the end of the discussion, the interviewer popped a rather an intriguing question to him — “What kind of cell phone do you have?”. And here was his response:
“It depends when you ask me. I uh, always have the latest cell phone, and I try every cell phone out, only because people like you keep asking me. Right now I’m using the Droid, because I want to get some experience with the Android operating system, and I, so far, have some favorable results. I’ve had an iPhone, which I gave to my grandson, which he used for three months and then I had to upgrade to a – better version. And I’ve tried many other phones. For my day to day conversations I actually use the Jitterbug. So I carry two phones – one very simple phone that I can flip open that has a very simple phonebook and nothing else. But when I want to twitter… tweet… then, I use my Droid.”
Below is the C-SPAN interview with Cooper. The conversation about the iPhone and Droid happens at the 30 minute mark.