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Handheld Radio

At Motorola, creating the first wireless phone, based on a handheld radio, would prove to be a tedious and enormous challenge for everyone involved. The magnitude of this undertaking was simply underestimated.

Facts about a Handheld Radio

No one had ever seen a wireless phone based on a handheld radio before, so there was nothing to compare it to. Martin Cooper called on Motorola's industrial design director, Rudy Krolopp and his team, to design the shape of the phone. A three-dimensional model needed to be built within days in order to have a working prototype for the FCC meeting in six weeks.

Additional Information about a Handheld Radio

After several days of continual work, Krolopp’s team gathered for dinner at a nearby restaurant to present their concepts. Hours later, they emerged with a winning design for the phone based on a handheld radio. “We called it a shoe phone, because it sort of looked a little bit like a boot,” recalled Krolopp.

More Data about a Handheld Radio

The design and engineering teams began to work together at breakneck speed to meet the impending deadline for the new device. The engineers’ challenge now was to make the electronics small enough to fit in the handset that Krolopp’s team designed. Fortunately, because of Motorola’s handheld radio and semiconductor experience, the company already held patents on, and manufactured, much of the basic electronics needed for a portable phone system.