It was April 3, 1973. Martin Cooper, an engineer from Motorola, made the first call in New York from a telephone strangely described as a portable. Nicknamed “the brick”, the prototype he wore in his ear weighed 1.2 kg. Its battery, with an autonomy of 30 minutes, required ten hours of recharging.
It will take ten years for Motorola to market the first mobile phone under the name DynaTAC 800. It weighs “only” 783 grams but its unsightly antenna protrudes 13.5 centimeters. Autonomy has doubled to one hour. The entry ticket is prohibitive: 3,995 dollars, or the equivalent of 10,000 dollars in current purchasing power.
“The first mobile phones were particularly heavy and complicated to use, recalls Jacques Moulin, Managing Director of the DigiWorld Institute Symbols of wealth, they were reserved for a privileged population made up in particular of businessmen. »
Forty years later, the situation has been reversed according to him. “By becoming widely democratized, mobile phones have now become a factor of inclusion in developing countries. In Africa, mobile payment has changed the lives of individuals excluded from the banking system”.
1980 – 1990: The rise of uses
But let’s not skip the steps. The real kick-off of commercial telephony will come with the GSM standard (Global System for Mobile Communications) which takes shape in 1987. The following year, Ericsson signs a first compatible system dedicated to companies.
After the Minitel, France is trying to distinguish itself. France Telecom markets the Bi-Bop in 1991 to compete with GSM. It is rather a portable phone booth since the happy owner of a dedicated terminal had to be within 300 meters of a terminal. With “call zones” only present in the big cities, the Bi-Bop gave substance to the notion of the white zone and disappeared from the radar in 1997.
The GSM will kick off a rise in functionality. The first generation of cellular wireless technology, 1G (1986) will make it possible to make calls, 2G (1991) to send SMS, 3G (2004) to surf the web and send MMS and 4G ( 2011) to generalize the mobile Internet.
A telephone is no longer only used for telephoning, it is even used less and less for telephoning. “When the SMS was launched, the experts at the time doubted its usefulness, continues Jacques Moulin. It was, in their eyes, a gimmick. SMS has since evolved along with instant messaging and voicemail, becoming a generational marker. »
This change in use leads manufacturers to offer suitable terminals. In 1994, IBM launched, with the Simon, the first touch screen telephone… in black and white. Considered the first smartphone in history, it can send and receive messages and faxes, serve as a personal digital assistant (PDA). Elapsed at 50,000 units, it is a commercial failure.
In 1996, the Nokia 9000 said Communicator is a real pocket computer. By opening it in half, it reveals a large horizontal screen and a physical keyboard. With its 8 MB memory, it includes a diary, an address book and allows, says the technical data sheet, to browse the internet… in 2G.
Other terminals will become legendary. The Siemens S10 (1998) includes a color screen and the Kyocera VP-210 (1999) incorporates a camera for the first time. It is curiously located on the front, inaugurating the era of selfies. The device can store up to 20 photos and send them via email.
The year 1999 will also be that of the first internet connections. A technical standard, the WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) makes it possible to adapt web pages to the size of the telephone screen. This specification, precursor of responsive design, will quickly be supported by HTML.
2000 – 2010: The iPhone bends “the game”
Mobile Internet access will truly be made possible with 3G. Launched at the end of 2000, the iconic Nokia 3310 will be the first model compatible with the standard. After the Finnish manufacturer, it was his Swedish counterpart Ericsson who innovated the following year, releasing the T39, the first Bluetooth device.
In 2002, the BlackBerry 6710 created the hype. Intended for a professional audience, its large monochrome screen and physical keyboard allow you to respond quickly to messages and e-mails. The brand will take a serious old look with the arrival of the iPhone in 2007. A stroke of genius, Steve Jobs brings together all the existing innovations – touch screen, applications, mobile internet… – within a refined and immediately intuitive interface .
The iPhone kicks off the smartphone concept. “An extension of our hand and our brain, the mobile becomes the platform that integrates all the uses of our daily life, whether it’s talking with loved ones, placing an order or consulting our bank account”, observes Jacques Moulin. .
In his eyes, there was no longer a quantum leap as with the iPhone. The smartphone becomes an unsurpassable model, annihilating the desire for innovation. It even cannibalizes other industries such as camera manufacturers or the GPS embedded in our cars. We also owe him the drop in watch sales.
The 2010s will only improve the existing functionalities, according to the new models. With here and there a few innovations such as the emergence of instant messaging following the launch of WhatsApp (2009), voice assistants with Siri (2011) or the rise of augmented reality with Pokemon Go (2016).
2020 – 20..: The smartphone, an unsurpassable model?
With the change of decade, 5G promises us other wow effects in the fields of cloud gaming, mobile streaming or telemedicine without our mobile phones fundamentally changing their appearance. The last Mobile World Congress dedicated the terminals to the foldable or drop-down screen.
By expanding the size of the screen, “it is only a question of cutting back on the market for tablets and laptops to make mobile the single terminal”, notes Jacques Moulin. This unique terminal responds to current environmental challenges. Most of the carbon footprint of digital comes from equipment, it is a question of reducing their number.
“Mobile has always reflected the issues of the time,” continues Jacques Moulin. In the 2000s, you had to have the latest model. Today, the question of the fight against global warming arises. Designed “green by design”, smartphones must be less energy-consuming, more durable and repairable. »
This environmental issue is coupled with an awareness of the time spent on your mobile. Without going as far as the radical positions of China which limits the time spent by children in front of a screen, DigiWorld Institute pleads for training from an early age on the reality of the digital world for reasonable and reasoned use. “Addiction can be dangerous for health and democracy, the mobile greatly contributing to the dissemination of” fake news “”, estimates our expert.
But what about the new man-machine interfaces? As we can see, connected speakers, connected watches or virtual reality headsets are not a substitute for smartphones. Even though its sales are declining, it remains the largely dominant model. Despite the failure of Google Glass, Jacques Moulin wants to believe in the success of connected glasses which, by freeing our hands, gives us more freedom. Star Wars-style hologram projection is also on the rise.
With his company Neuralink, Elon Musk is betting on eliminating any interface. With its cerebral implant, our brain will be in direct contact with the virtual world. “The next generation will have a phone embedded under the skin of their ears,” said ever-so visionary Martin Cooper, now 94, recently.