Dialing up complexity

Posted by Michael Hainsworth on November 6, 2009

The man widely credited with inventing the cellphone says today's devices are too complicated.
 
In April of 1973 Martin Cooper placed the first ever cellphone call from a New York City sidewalk. The man from Motorola called his rival at Bell Labs on the 2.5 pound phone. At the time the brick had a talk time of 35 minutes and took 10 hours to recharge.
 
Today's typical smartphone incorporates a camera, a GPS navigation system, email and video games. The 80-year old Cooper is quoted by the London Telegraph as saying that when you create a universal device that does all things for all people, it does not do any things well. Cooper believes the future is a number of specialized devices that focus on one thing. Cooper has been particularly unimpressed with Apple's iPhone.
 
Since Apple's iPhone first hit stores June 29th, 2007, Apple shares are up 58.9-percent.
 
In the same time, Motorola stock is down 49.6-percent.
 
Motorola has found smartphone religion with Google's Android operating system. Its first handset was launched today by Verizon. C-net News reports the response has been underwhelming -- with only a handful of lineups across the country. A stark contrast to the around the block lineups for the iPhone more than 2 years ago.
 

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