Motorola excels in every way when it comes to flagship smartphones. This article is all about the Motorola phone’s history, who made the Motorola phone and when was the first Motorola phone released.
Motorola Phone History
On September 25, 1928, Paul Galvin and his brother Joseph founded Motorola as “Galvin Manufacturing Co.” In Chicago, Illinois, USA.
Galvin brothers purchased the battery eliminator design and released it as Motorola’s first product at the Galvin Manufacturing Corporation.
Motorola manufactured many different types of radios. Car radios became popular thanks to the Galvin brothers, who introduced an inexpensive car radio called the Motorola Radio in 1930, selling it primarily to police departments and municipalities.
In the late 1930s, the company began producing a variety of one-way and two-way radios, including radio receivers for police cars.
Two notable examples of Motorola’s two-way radios include the SCR300 radio, the world’s first FM portable two-way radio, and the Handie-Talkie SCR536, the most famous radio of the World War II era.
In 1937, Motorola entered the home entertainment industry with the introduction of home radios and phonographs.
Ten years later, Galvin Manufacturing Corporation finally changed its name to Motorola Inc.
Motorola created the world’s first mobile phone
On April 3, 1973, Motorola Chief Engineer Martin Cooper publicly demonstrated the world’s first mobile phone. He made his first public call on a cell phone to one of the people he had competed with to develop the device.
Over the next decade, they worked tirelessly to improve what was still very basic cell phone technology. Finally, in 1984, Motorola introduced the world’s first commercial mobile phone, the brick-sized DynaTAC 8000x, forever changing the communications industry.
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Downfall of Motorola
Despite early success in the 2000s with popular phones like the Motorola Razr flip phone, things began to go downhill for Motorola.
In 2007, Apple released the first iPhone, and Motorola’s global sales fell by more than half. From 2007 to 2009, the company lost a whopping $4.3 billion. Motorola never fully recovered.
These losses resulted in Motorola splitting into two companies. On one side, it focused on communications products such as police radios (now known as Motorola Solutions). The other focused on struggling businesses selling consumer products such as cell phones (now known as Motorola Mobility).
In 2012, Motorola Mobility was acquired by Google for $12.5 billion, which turned out to be one of Google’s most costly mistakes when it sold the company to Lenovo in 2014 for just $2.91 billion.
But it wasn’t entirely a mistake. Motorola holds tens of thousands of patents, and Google has acquired them all. This was a move that strengthened the company against patent attacks from companies like Apple and Microsoft.
Motorola Solutions remains its own company, but the Motorola we all know and love for making cutting-edge mobile phones is now just a branch of Lenovo.
Conclusion: The history of Motorola phones
Motorola phones have a rich history, from its early days as a pioneering manufacturer of radios and televisions to its groundbreaking innovations in mobile phone technology.
However, the company faced challenges with the advent of smartphones, which led to its split into two separate entities.
Despite its ups and downs, Motorola’s legacy lives on, and its products and patents continue to impact the communications industry.
Although the brand may have faded from its former glory, Motorola will always be remembered as a pioneer in the world of communications technology.
FAQs
What is the meaning of Motorola?
Motorola comes from a combination of two words: ‘motor’, meaning car, and ‘ola’, meaning sound. Motorola started making car radios in the 20s and 30s. They also produced walkie-talkie radios used by US soldiers during World War II, making them well-connected to wireless telephones.
What was the first mobile phone in the history?
The first cell phone in the world was the DynaTAC 8000X. Motorola developed the first portable mobile phone in 1973. The portable device was shaped like a brick and weighed about 2.4 pounds. It was called DynaTAC 8000X.
The device only worked for up to 30 minutes of talk time, but it could be charged for a whopping 10 hours! The first person to call was Martin Cooper, a Motorola executive. He was interviewed by Dr. John, an engineer at competitor Bell Labs. I called Joel Engel.
What was the price of the first mobile phone?
The first mobile devices weren’t cheap. The DynaTAC phone costs $3,995, which is equivalent to $10,000 in today’s money.
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