History of the cellphone

Martin Cooper, chairman and CEO of ArrayComm, holds a Motorola DynaTAC, a 1973 prototype of the first handheld cellular telephone in San Francisco, on April 2, 2003. The first call was made from a handheld cellular telephone on April 2, 1973.

Actress Hedy Lamarr in 1941. Lamarr and composer George Antheil designed and patented a communications system in 1942 that has become the underlying technology of the cellular phone.

In this staged photo from General Electric, a stranded motorist calls a service station from an in-car cellular phone in 1983.At that time, in-car cellphones cost about $2,500 to install.

A man uses an early mobile phone at the Daily Express newspaper offices in London in October 1988.

Mark-Paul Gosselaar as Zack Morris holds an early cellphone as he talks with Dustin Diamond as Screech Powers in a 1990 TV episode of "Saved by the Bell."

A MicroTAC cellular phone, complete with nickel cadmium battery, made by Motorola. By the end of the 1980s, Motorola had become the biggest worldwide supplier of cellular telephones.

Then-Democratic presidential nominee Bill Clinton talks on a cellular phone while meeting with Boston Mayor Ray Flynn in a New York hotel on Sept. 25, 1992. Early cellphones relied on exterior atennas; most are now built into the phones.

The Simon cellular telephone is displayed on Aug. 29, 1994 in Houston. The phone, which could be used as a fax machine, was touted a handheld portable office. It sold for $899.

When it was launched in 1996, the pocket-sized StarTAC, seen here, at just 93g (3.1 ounces), was the world's smallest phone and the first to operate continuously with dual detachable batteries. It was a clamshell flip phone, setting the standard for many other phones to follow.

The Synergy, a digital smartphone by Philips, is demonstrated in October 1997. The mobile provided wireless access to email, the Internet and faxes.

The Treo 180, manucfactured by Handspring, was a personal digital assistant with built-in cellphone, Web-browsing and e-mail features. The company introduced the product in October 2001, but it was not available until early 2002. Palm later bought Handspring and continued the Treo line.

The T-Mobile Sidekick, top, and Nokia 6800 are seen in 2003 in New York. These machines offered small keyboards and multiple means of staying connected, like instant messages, short text messages, email and voice.

The Palm Treo, this one a 700w model from 2006, was a huge success commercially. It provided a phone, email and Internet access (be it rudimentary) in a more friendly manner than the BlackBerrys of that time.

A businessman checks his BlackBerry in February 2006 in Washington, D.C. The BlackBerry, which doubled as a phone, earned the nickname "CrackBerry" after it made addicts of several million Americans who used it extensively for work, as well as for their own personal device.

The notion of cellphones as a sleek fashion accessory started with Motorola's Razr, seen in April 2006. It was eminently pocketable, a foreign notion at the time for most cellphones.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs holds up the iPhone as it was introduced on Jan. 9, 2007 in San Francisco.

The Google Nexus One, left, smartphone with provider service from T-Mobile and the Apple iPhone with provider service from AT&T, sit side by side in January 2010. Google unveiled its Nexus One smartphone in a direct challenge to heavyweight Apple's iPhone handsets. The Internet search giant billed the touchscreen device, the culmination of collaboration with Taiwanese electronics titan HTC, a "superphone" that marked the next step in the evolution of its Android software. The first Android phone was released in 2008.