These days we often speculate about what we did before we had a mobile phone. Well, before 6 March, 1983, the thought of being able to communicate anytime, anyplace, anywhere hadn't even begun to surface in most people's minds when Motorola launched the DynaTAC1 8000X.
For years Motorola had been at the forefront of portable communications. In 1930 they had produced the first commercially successful car radio, which they developed into the two-way radios which became standard for the allies during the Second World War. After the war they then developed pagers, car radiotelephones and radio transponders. As a result it was Motorola technology that relayed Neil Armstrong's famous words from the Moon in 1969. However, in 1968 the next breakthrough had already been made. Based on 'cells' that would enable the same radio frequencies to be reused simultaneously in other areas, they started to look into the possibility of mobile cellular phones.