DynaTAC is a series of cellular telephones manufactured by Motorola, Inc. from 1983 to 1994. The first model, the 8000x, received FCC certification in 1983[1], and became the first cell phone to be offered commercially when it went on sale on 6 March 1983. It offered 30 minutes of talk time and 8 hours of standby, and a LED display for dialling or recall of one of 30 phone numbers. It was priced at $3,995 in 1983 dollars. DynaTAC was an abbreviation of Dynamic Adaptive Total Area Coverage.
Several models followed, starting in 1985 with the 8000s and continuing with periodic updates of increasing frequency until 1993's Classic II. Throughout, the DynaTAC was the canonical cell phone, and it became a regular feature in mass media, first as a symbol of wealth and futurism, and later as a quaint throwback when its era had ended. The DynaTAC was swiftly made obsolete in most roles by the much smaller Motorola MicroTAC when it was first introduced in 1989, and by the time of the Motorola StarTAC it was already an anachronism.
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The first cellular phone was the culmination of efforts begun at Bell Labs, which first proposed the idea of a cellular system in 1947, and continued to petition the FCC for channels through the 1950s and 1960s, and research conducted at Motorola. In 1960, John F. Mitchell, an electrical engineer who graduated from the Illinois Institute of Technology, became Motorola's chief engineer for its mobile communication products. Mitchell oversaw the development and marketing of the first pager to use transistors.
Motorola had long produced mobile telephones for automobiles, that were large and heavy and consumed too much power to allow their use without the automobile's engine running. Mitchell's team developed portable cellular telephony, and Mitchell was among the Motorola employees granted a patent for this work in 1973; the first call on the prototype was completed, reportedly, to a wrong number.[2][3] While Motorola was developing the cellular phone itself, during 1968-1983, Bell Labs worked on the system called AMPS, which became the first cellular network in the U.S. Motorola and others designed cell phones for that and other cellular systems. Martin Cooper, a former general manager for the systems division at Motorola led a team that produced the DynaTAC8000x, first commercially available cellular phone small enough to be easily carried, and made the first phone call from it. The DynaTAC's retail price, $3,995 ($8807 in present-day terms[4]), ensured that it would not become a mass-market item; by 1998, when Mitchell retired, cellphones and associated services made up two thirds of Motorola's $30 billion in revenue.[5]
On October 13, 1983, Bob Barnett, former president of Ameritech Mobile Communications placed the first commercial wireless call on a DynaTAC from inside a Chrysler convertible to the grandson of Alexander Graham Bell who was in Germany for the event. The call, made at Soldier Field in Chicago, is considered by many as a major turning point in communications. Later Richard Frenkiel, the head of system development at Bell Laboratories, said about the DynaTAC: "It was a real triumph; a great breakthrough."[6]
Several prototypes were made between 1973 and 1983. The product accepted by the FCC weighed 28 ounces (790 g) and was 10 inches (25 cm) high, not including its flexible "rubber duck" whip antenna. In addition to the typical 12-key telephone keypad, it had nine additional special keys:
The DynaTAC 8 Series, Classic, Classic II, Ultra Classic, and Ultra Classic II utilized a display with red LEDs; the DynaTAC International Series with green LEDs, and the DynaTAC 6000XL used a vacuum fluorescent display. These displays were severely limited in what information they could show. The battery allowed for a call of up to 60 minutes, after which it was necessary to charge the phone up to 10 hours in a trickle charger or one hour in a fast charger which was a separate accessory.[7] While still retaining the DynaTAC name, the 6000XL was completely unrelated to the DynaTAC 8000 Series, in that it was a transportable phone meant for installation in a vehicle.
The DynaTAC Series was succeeded by the MicroTAC Series in 1989.
With the removal of analog network cells nearly all over the world, the DynaTAC models running on AMPS or other analog networks are mostly obsolete. Thus, they are more collectors' items than usable telephones. The International series, however, will still work, but only on GSM 900 cells.
While it might be considered extremely unwieldy by today's standards, at the time it was considered revolutionary, because mobile telephones were bulky affairs installed in vehicles, or in heavy briefcases. The DynaTAC 8000X was truly the first mobile telephone which could connect to the telephone network without the assistance of a mobile operator and could be carried about by the user.
In certain markets, a brass swivel antenna was one of the after-market accessories then available. It was used by Henry Thia in the film Money No Enough, where he made a call on a 8000x complete with swivel antenna.
Motorola also offered a one-hour desktop charger, though the battery could get quite hot while charging at this accelerated rate.
The DynaTAC has become associated with the 1980s in popular culture, and has been heavily used in film and media set in that period.
The phone is well known for being used by Gordon Gekko in Wall Street, and Tommy Vercetti in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. It is also used by Patrick Bateman in American Psycho. The phones have been given the nickname "Zack Morris phones" because of their heavy use by the central character in the sitcom Saved by the Bell.
Motorola DynaTAC phones have been prominently featured alongside their more-modern cousin Motorola RAZR in the second-season episode "Peter" of the TV show Fringe.
In the 1993 Hanna-Barbara cartoon SWAT Kats, it was seen once being used by Commander Feral.
The phone was also seen in 2009 TV series The Electric Company. It was owned by the Prankster, Manny Spambonni. This fictional model has a bigger screen below the keypad and was capable of texting and taking pictures.
In 2010, the phone was seen in an ad for New Zealand insurance company, Pinnacle Life. The ad depicted a fictional character, Molly, who was happy with her old insurance plan, but it was so expensive that she still had to use her Motorola DynaTAC 8000x from 1983.
In an episode of the 2010 Cartoon Network series Regular Show, Mordecai and Rigby use two Motorola DynaTAC 8000x from Pops to prank call the Master Prank-Caller.
In the 1996 movie The People vs. Larry Flynt, Edward Norton, playing Alan Isaacman, can be seen using the phone at the end, telling Larry Flynt they won the case Hustler Magazine v. Falwell.
In the Doctor Who Big Finish audio drama Crime of the Century, the East End gangster Markus Creevy (Ricky Groves) marvels at the size and portability of the DynaTAC 8000x.
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