Jan Freeman writes The Word column for Ideas.
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« Power-to-the-people journalism | Main | Early cell phones » Monday, March 19, 2007Cell Phones of the Future PastThanks for the shout-out, Evan. Speaking of cell phones, there's a very interesting/amusing story on the development of the mobile phone in the winter issue of Invention and Technology magazine. Motorola introduced the world's first handheld portable cell phone in 1973.  What's so interesting is that nobody -- including Motorola -- thought the cell phone would be of much use to anyone. Because it was so big. Motorola's real motivation in prototyping the cell phone, it turns out, was to get the FCC to allot more spectrum for car phones, which they saw as a lucrative market for their equipment-making business. But this is a fascinating R&D story -- nobody thought they could pull it off. Well worth a read. And the photos are funny, too. Posted by Joshua Glenn at 03:06 PM
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