Martin Cooper

The idea that you would have a computer, that you would have access to all the knowledge in the world, that you could text, that you could do video conversations.

None of those things.

We knew that was going to happen someday, but not.

certainly not in our lifetimes.

It was clear to us, however, that someday everybody would have a cell phone.

We just knew that that was the case.

In contrast, with the bell system, who thought that cell phones... They had a study done, and the study concluded that there would be a maximum of a million cell phones in the world ever.

Well, it turns out they were right because the maximum number of car phones ever were about a million.

But the story that we told at that time is that someday when you were born, you would be assigned a phone number.

And if you didn't answer the phone, you had died.

We knew that this was going to be a big deal.

Oh, I think we got a long way to go.

I think we just barely tapped the power of being connected.

Because at least in this country, most of the things people do on cell phones are games.

Social media is really not fundamental.

But just think of what the potential of a cell phone.

You have to go to Africa and India and Mexico to find out what the real future of the cell phone.

Because there, people are using the cell phone.

First of all, it's their first phone and their only phone.

In Africa, the cell phone is the whole basis of the money system.