Introducing a revolutionary new concept... a cell phone you can CARRY WITH YOU. Sure, you have to wind it up and add plutonium, but it's worth it. Ah, the early 90's.
Wow... I remember my dad had one of those things back in the late 80s early 90s. Barely anybody had cell phones back then, so talking on one was such a novelty. Now everyone has one and you can't walk 20 feet without hearing someone on their phone.
My dad told me a story about when he was young and he got one of these "Transportable Cellular Phone" and how it was the thing to have back in the 80's, he also told me it was a pain in the ass to carry and it cost like $3000...
I used one of these when I worked for a delivery company. It cost around 40 cents a minute and you could recharge it with the lighter in the car. You had to have a good reason for using it, the charges added up fast!
I was working at a RS Computer Center in '86 when this came out. It was VERY heavy and cost a king's ransom. Service was through Bell Atlantic Mobile Systems (BAMS).
This phone is awesome. Its small, light weight, easy too conceal. Its also has great coverage. It said "Cellular Service available in MOST major cities."
damn. we sure have come a really long way. if anyone's seen using these, i can bet that they will be heckled and laughed at (sort of like theme park guests who come in with the monster video cameras instead of using a flip).
We had a car phone built into the truck and a bag phone, both Motorola. I think we still have them around here somewhere. Then the smaller phone(7" long x 2" thick) with the flip down talk flap and antenna that you had to pull out. The tips would fall off and the antenna would get stuck in the phone. I'm glad phones kept developing!
I remember my finance professor back in '97, '98, admonishing a student whose cellphone rang during a lecture, "I don't see why would you need a cell phone unless you're a stock broker or a drug dealer." So the logic of late 80s and early 90s, that cell phones are made specifically for traders and business people remained for some time.
You are sorely mistaken, Mobira and Nokia werent a part of each other until two years later. It was the best thing that could have happened to the cell architecture. Bell Labs still had the best in car phones as they had them working off of landline repeaters since the late 60s, but were inherently expensive. I'm a former AT&T and Radio Shack employee, worked for RS during the product launches for the CT-100 the phone that stayed in car all of the time and the CT-201, pictured above was 2nd gen.
I remember my dad had a bag phone. It just looked like an over night bag. Then it got stolen in NYC :) My mom had a phone that was installed in the car.
Wow that cell phone is huge, it looks like a carrying for some small item. That kid in the las frame of the commercial looks like the kid who played Marc Foster-Lambert on Step by Step.
Ahh, a AMPS based cell "transportable" and a "Trash 100". How I miss those days. My first cell phone was a GE car phone this same year, then a Panasonic transportable, then finally a Motorola flip phone. As for my own Trash 100 (TRS80-100), it kept my secret stash of pr0n (well, text version of pr0n) ...
INTERESTING and well also how laptops had changed a lot...Well I wasen't born in the 80s I was born in 1994 but yeah my brother had one of those he used it to typed his work on the typewriter...
by 1990 seems radio shack was offering portable cell phones. lol Well anyways, there used to be a commercial on here from 1988 where Radio Shack was just introducing the car phones.
Boy I cant believe this, I just found my cell phone just like this its in good shape cant find the battery it may turn up. I paid $1300.00 in 1986 I was 24 years old
you just have to sit back and laugh at what 18 years could do to cell phone technology... this is why payphones had yet to go into obsolescence in 1990
@zimmyzimgir That's actually a portable word processor you typed and edited your document or spread sheet and then you plugged it in to 16 pin printer connection and it would print your document. We had a few of them in my elementary school in 1992 or 92, we hated them becasue you could not play Number Munchers, or Organ Trail on them.
@zimmyzimgir Was actually a Texas Instruments portable Computer which was also sold by RadioShack. There really isn't anything new under the sun. Just different versions of the same thing >
LOL I think the kid at the end of the video was the actor that played the neighbor kid in "The Gate"...think his name was Terry in that film. One of my favorite scary movies.
wow looked like car fones of the 1960's to 80's reemeber those only a few people had them I remember having Bag cell fones a Cell fone in a bag wow and look at cell fones now wow in just 20 years
