By James Collins
A Brief History
1947: AT&T creates the “Mobile Telephone Service” allowing customers to make calls using a simple, 79-pound device. Teenagers were not impressed: It could not take selfies.
1965: After more than 18 years of work by hundreds of MBA marketing geniuses, AT&T renamed their device the “Improved Mobile Telephone Service”. Limited to just 40,000 subscribers, the system was prone to long wait times and poor service—but that was AT&T’s corporate motto, so nobody noticed.
1973: Motorola creates the first portable device. Weighing in at just two pounds, it was extremely light compared to previous models and was customizable: Users could select from a variety of colors. Of course, color choice depended on what can of spray paint you had lying around.
