Cspan is calling Martin Cooper the most influential person that you have never heard about.  If you do not know (and most people don't) he of course invented the cellular telephone.

AT&T actually first invented cellular telephony as far back as the 1940s.  Then in the 1960s they wanted to commercialize it and become a monopoly with the new technology.  Then a small company called Motorola decided to take on the big boys at AT&T.  Cooper worked for Motorola at the time and decided he wanted to make a prototype to bring to the press and influential people in New York and Washington.  His team built the first cellular phone in 3 months with "hundreds of thousands" of 1970s dollars.  The first phone weighed in at a whopping 2.5 pounds and the battery lasted for 20 minutes.  A picture of Cooper and the first cell phone is below.

Fast forward to today, Cooper is in his 80s but is still very passionate about cell phones.  He tries out every new cell phone to this day and you would be surprised what he is currently testing.  Here is what he told Cspan. (see 30:06 of the video below for the question)

Cspan: What kind of cell phone do you have?

Martin Cooper: “It depends when you ask me. I, always have the latest cell phone, and I try every cell phone out, only because people like you keep asking me. Right now I’m using Droid, because I want to get some experience with the Android operating system, and I so far, have some pretty favorable results. I’ve had an iPhone, which I gave to my grandson, which he used for three months and then I had to upgrade to a  better version. And I’ve tried many other phones. For my day to day conversations I actually use the Jitterbug. So I carry two phones, one very simple phone that I can flip open that has a very simple phone book and nothing else. But when I want to twitter - tweet, then, I use my Droid.”

We wonder what Android Apps he has installed!  We also wonder if he will keep the Android after his evaluation or move on to something else?

The video is also worthwhile for those interested in a little history, background of the cellular phone and the technology behind it.  Also, interesting thoughts from the inventor of the mobile phone himself.

Video Credit: Cspan