Martin Cooper
Motorola engineer who made the first handheld mobile phone call
- Age
- 97 yrs
- Birthday in 50 days
- Works listed
- 2
- Mobile phone, Memoir
- Honours
- 3
- Most recent 2013
- Profile views
- 3
- 0 followers
Martin Cooper is an American engineer who led the Motorola team that built the first handheld mobile phone. On 3 April 1973 he made the first public call from a handheld cell phone on a New York street. The phone became the DynaTAC 8000X, sold from 1983.
Biography
Background
Cooper studied electrical engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology, served as a submarine officer in the US Navy and joined Motorola in 1954, working on portable radios and pagers.
The first call
AT&T’s Bell Labs planned car phones, but Cooper believed phones should belong to people, not places. His team built a prototype in about 90 days. On 3 April 1973, on Sixth Avenue in Manhattan, he called his rival at Bell Labs, Joel Engel, to say he was speaking from a handheld phone.
The DynaTAC
It took ten years of development and regulation before the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X went on sale in 1983. It weighed about 790 grams, cost $3,995 and offered 30 minutes of talk time.
Entrepreneur
Cooper left Motorola and co-founded companies including ArrayComm, which worked on smart antennas, and GreatCall, which made the Jitterbug phone for older people. He received the Marconi Prize and the Draper Prize in 2013.
Timeline
-
1928
Born in Chicago, Illinois, United States
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1954
Joins Motorola
-
1973
First handheld cell phone call
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1983
DynaTAC 8000X goes on sale
-
1992
Co-founds ArrayComm
-
2006
GreatCall’s Jitterbug phone
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2009
Princess of Asturias Award
-
2013
Marconi and Draper prizes
Notable works
-
1973
Motorola DynaTAC Mobile phone
-
2021
Cutting the Cord Memoir
Awards and honours
-
Princess of Asturias Award
2009
-
Marconi Prize
2013
-
Charles Stark Draper Prize
2013
Did you know?
-
1
The battery lasted about 20 minutes of talk.
-
2
He has said he was inspired partly by Dick Tracy’s wrist radio.
-
3
Cooper’s law says wireless capacity doubles roughly every 30 months.
Connections
Also born on 26 December
-
Baba Amte
Activism & Humanitarian · Social worker who cared for people affected by leprosy
1914
-
Joseph Sifakis
Science · Greek-French computer scientist who independently pioneered model checking
1946
-
Charles Babbage
Science · Victorian mathematician who designed the first programmable mechanical computer
1791
Frequently asked
Who is Martin Cooper?
Martin Cooper is an American engineer who led the Motorola team that built the first handheld mobile phone. On 3 April 1973 he made the first public call from a handheld cell phone on a New York street. The phone became the DynaTAC 8000X, sold from 1983.
How old is Martin Cooper?
Martin Cooper is 97 years old, born on 26 December 1928 in Chicago, Illinois, United States.
Where is Martin Cooper from?
Martin Cooper was born in Chicago, Illinois, United States.
What is Martin Cooper known for?
Martin Cooper is best known for First handheld cellular phone call (1973); Motorola DynaTAC; “father of the cell phone”.
What awards has Martin Cooper received?
Notable honours include Princess of Asturias Award (2009), Marconi Prize (2013), Charles Stark Draper Prize (2013).
References
- Martin Cooper (inventor) — Wikipedia. Wikipedia. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
- Martin Cooper (inventor) — Hindi Wikipedia. Wikipedia (Hindi). Retrieved 4 November 2026.
- Official website. www.dynallc.com. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
- Martin Cooper (inventor) (Q319383) — structured data. Wikidata. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
Includes material from the Wikipedia article “Martin Cooper (inventor)”, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. That text is available under the same licence. Learn more
External links
About this profile
- Researched by the TrackFame editorial team; reviewed by Sanjay Sokal under our editorial policy
- First published 4 November 2026
- Last updated
Cite this page
“Martin Cooper.” TrackFame, last updated 5 November 2026. https://trackfame.com/person/martin-cooper
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