BARCELONA, Spain – Martin Cooper, widely recognized as one of the lead inventors of the modern cellphone, believes that the “next step of the revolution” is just around the corner.
“Digital was supposed to . change our lives, but it really hasn’t happened yet,” he said during a press reception at the Mobile World Congress trade show, held last month in Barcelona, Spain. The LiMo Foundation sponsored Cooper’s talk.
“But I’m here today to announce to you that that part of the revolution has started,” Cooper said.
Cooper, one of the first inductees into the RCR Wireless News Wireless Hall of Fame, was an engineer at Motorola Inc. who helped design the world’s first cellphone, and made the first wireless call from a test device in New York City in 1973. Cooper has remained an active member of the wireless industry and is founder and executive chairman of antenna company ArrayComm.
During his wide-ranging talk at the Mobile World Congress, Cooper explained that several key factors will soon fall in place to push the global wireless industry to the next level.
First, Cooper said, the cost of wireless services must come down.
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Listen to Martin Cooper discuss the cost of wireless service, and how it needs to change. |
“We need at least an order of magnitude improvement in cost,” he said, explaining that technologies including OFDM and other advanced inventions will help drive down the cost of wireless for everyday consumers.
The second – and perhaps more important – factor in the coming revolution centers on innovation, driven by the industry’s move toward open access.
“What happens when we get the cost problem solved? Now we need to have people creating applications, and that’s where the issue of open access comes in,” he explained.
Cooper said that Verizon Wireless’ embrace of open access, along with the Federal Communications Commission setting open-access stipulations on the 700 MHz spectrum auction, reflects progress toward an environment more conducive to innovation.
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Listen to Martin Cooper discuss the growing roll of open access in the wireless industry. |
“How do you unleash the creativity of hundreds or thousands of other kinds of people?” Cooper asked rhetorically, explaining that open networks will help drive application development and industry innovation.
Cooper also rallied against the wireless industry’s over-eager reliance on technical and marketing approaches instead of pragmatic and real-world solutions. As an example, Cooper pointed to feature-laden handsets. Cooper said that, in most cases, cellphone instruction manuals are heavier than the devices they purport to clarify, which highlights the over-complexity in the wireless marketplace.
“Good technology is invisible. The best technologies are totally transparent,” Cooper said, adding that the wireless industry has “tried to make the handset do everything,” which is not the proper approach.
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Listen to Martin Cooper discuss the industry’s reliance on technology. |
Instead, Cooper said, industry players should focus on solving problems. For example, he said, digital cameras should include an embedded wireless module that could automatically transmit pictures to friends, family or co-workers.
An even more powerful application could center on health care, Cooper explained, describing a body-monitoring service that could alert doctors or others of medical issues.
Nonetheless, Cooper said, the revolution is coming.
“We are on the cusp. This all is going to happen,” he said. “We are going to converge the Internet and the wireless industry in a way that we not only can improve our productivity, but we will also get educated, entertained, our safety will be improved and our health will be improved. All these things are going to happen.”
