Father of cellphones Martin Cooper on their future 50 years after he made the first call

Martin Cooper, the inventor of first commercial mobile phone, poses with a Motorola DynaTAC 8000x at the Mobile World Congress 2023 in Barcelona, Spain. He made the first cellphone call 50 years ago in Manhattan using a prototype of that “brick” phone. (Joan Mateu Parra / AP)

BARCELONA, Spain — Holding the bulky “brick” cellphone he’s credited with inventing 50 years ago, Martin Cooper talks about the future.

Little did he know when he made the first call on a New York City street from a heavy Motorola prototype that our world would come to be encapsulated on a sleek glass sheath where we search, connect, like and buy.