Motorola Dynatac 8000x

Born: 1983

Technology: AMPS

For the best example of Motorola's pioneering role in creating the modern cell phone, look no further than the Dynatac 8000x. The world's first commercially available cell phone, the Dynatac, aka the "brick phone," was barely portable. It weighed 2.5 pounds, and as my colleague Maggie Reardon told us back in 2008, it was hugely expensive. After you shelled out $3,995 for the handset and paid a $50 per month service fee, voice calls cost 40 cents a minute at peak hours and 24 cents a minute at off-peak times. The Dynatac received FCC approval in 1983 and went on sale in 1984.