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71-504: Several models followed, starting in 1985 with the 8000s and continuing with periodic updates of increasing frequency until 1993's Classic II. The DynaTAC was replaced in most roles by the much smaller Motorola MicroTAC when it was first introduced in 1989, and by the time of the Motorola StarTAC 's release in 1996, it was obsolete. The first cellular phone was the culmination of efforts begun at Bell Labs , which first proposed

142-408: A Menu Icon Display. The phone's software offered advanced menu features, and each category, when accessed, was indicated with green icons at the bottom of the display. Categories included Phone Book, Timers, Security, Tone Control, Phone Options, and Answering Machine / Messaging. This was the first mobile phone to have a built-in, recordable answering machine. It was also the first mobile phone to use

213-465: A black plastic housing and a red 8-character dot-matrix LED display, which was able to show more information than the display of its predecessor, the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X . However, dot-matrix displays of the time were still quite limited by today's standards. The inside of the flip piece had the "Motorola" logo on a diagonal, above thin blue diagonal lines. The badge on the front flip had

284-445: A concern to DynaTAC owners.) Available, too, was a snug-fitting zippered leather case which covered the entire body of the phone and had a clear plastic front to make the user interface accessible. It featured a sturdy spring-steel belt clip and a small cutaway at the top to allow the antenna to protrude. Charging could still be performed with the cover on, but change of battery required its removal. DynaTAC relates to US phones used on

355-406: A dark orange dot-matrix LED display (only 9800X models had a true red display) and additional menu features. Lites, Ultra-Lites, Lite IIs, Lite XLs, Elites, and Alphas were all available as VIP phones. Whip antenna A whip antenna is an antenna consisting of a straight flexible wire or rod. The bottom end of the whip is connected to the radio receiver or transmitter . A whip antenna

426-478: A dipole, or a quarter-wave whip with an adequate size ground plane. Whips not mounted on the radio itself are usually fed with coaxial cable feedline of 50 ohm or 75 ohm impedance. In transmitting antennas the impedance of the antenna must be matched to the feedline for maximum power transfer. A half wave whip antenna (length of 1 2 λ {\displaystyle {\tfrac {1}{2}}\lambda } ) has somewhat higher gain than

497-408: A flexible fiberglass rod around a wire core and can be up to 11 m (35 feet) long. The length of a whip antenna is determined by the wavelength of the radio waves it is used with. Their length varies from compact electrically short antennas ⁠ 1 / 10  ⁠  wavelength long, up to ⁠ 5  / 8 ⁠   wavelength to improve directivity. The most common type

568-716: A green backlight. These uncommon variants were made for the Norwegian Storno and Italian SIP networks in the early 1990s. The Storno variants operated on NMT-450 and the SIP models were of the ETACS / RTMS-450 Dual Band. They kept the "MicroTAC" Blue logo on the screen, the same black housing, but had different metallic badges in addition to the LCD. The original models can be distinguished by their elongated antenna base, white-translucent keys and gray keypad background. Accessories for

639-670: A lithium-ion battery. A series of GSM models was produced beginning in 1994, mostly in the UK, such as the International 5200, International 7500, and the International 8400, all running on the GSM 900 network. Many of these models are functionally identical but feature cosmetic differences or software upgrades. The International 8700, released in 1996, was fitted as a removable handset in the earliest Jaguar XK8 and Jaguar XKR luxury sports coupes and convertibles, and selected BMW models up to

710-441: A quarter wave ground plane antenna with horizontal ground wires is around 22 ohms, a poor match to coaxial cable feedline, and the main lobe of the radiation pattern is still tilted up toward the sky. Often (see pictures) the ground plane rods are sloped downward at a 45-degree angle, which has the effect of lowering the main lobe of the radiation pattern so more of the power is radiated in horizontal directions, and increases

781-416: A quarter wave whip, but it has a current node at its feedpoint at the base of the rod so it has very high input impedance. If it was infinitely thin the antenna would have an infinite input impedance, but the finite width gives typical, practical half wave whips an impedance of 800–1,500 ohms. These are usually fed through an impedance matching transformer or a quarter wave stub matching section (e.g.

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852-462: A quarter-wavelength long connected to the opposite side of the feedline, extending horizontally from the base of the whip, is often used. This is called a ground plane antenna . These few short wire elements serve to receive the displacement current from the driven element and return it to the ground conductor of the transmission line, making the antenna behave somewhat as if it has a continuous conducting plane under it. The radiation resistance of

923-403: A quarter-wavelength, and still be resonant , by cancelling out the capacitive reactance of the short antenna. This is called an electrically short whip . The coil is added at the base of the whip (called a base-loaded whip) or occasionally in the middle (center-loaded whip). In the most widely used form, the rubber ducky antenna , the loading coil is integrated with the antenna itself by making

994-432: A raised metallic Motorola logo, and "Micro T.A.C" in small blue letters above the display. The "micro" sized phone measured as long as over 9 inches (23 cm) long when open and weighed in 12.3 ounces (350 g) with the slim battery. The phone incorporated a built-in alpha-numeric phone book as one of the many standard features. A numerically organized menu allowed the user to select options for phone operations. Some of

1065-499: A rubber side grip with the later Ultra Lite model. The phones shipped with either a green backlit single-line LCD or a red dot matrix LED display. 1994 saw the introduction of the MicroTAC Elite and the "International" series, the then smallest and light-weight model available at the time. It weighed in at a mere 3.9 ounces (110 g) with the slim battery. The Elite was a function of NAMPS technology from 1993. The Elite

1136-508: A team that produced the DynaTAC 8000X, the first commercially available cellular phone small enough to be easily carried, and made the first phone call from it. Martin Cooper was the first person to make an analog cellular mobile phone call on a prototype in 1973. The Motorola DynaTAC 8000X was very large compared to phones today. This first cell phone was very expensive when it was released in

1207-399: A term later applied to other brands as a contrast to smaller handsets appearing in the 1990s. While it might be considered extremely unwieldy by modern standards, at the time it was considered revolutionary because mobile telephones were bulky affairs installed in vehicles or in heavy briefcases. The DynaTAC 8000X was 10 inches (25 cm) long and weighed 2.5 pounds (1 kg). It was truly

1278-407: Is a form of monopole antenna . The antenna is designed to be flexible so that it does not break easily, and the name is derived from the whip -like motion that it exhibits when disturbed. Whip antennas for portable radios are often made of a series of interlocking telescoping metal tubes, so they can be retracted when not in use. Longer whips, made for mounting on vehicles and structures, are made of

1349-455: Is approximately one-quarter of the wavelength ( 1 4 λ {\displaystyle {\tfrac {1}{4}}\lambda } ), called a "quarter-wave whip" (although often shortened by the use of a loading coil ; see Electrically short whips below). For example, the common quarter-wave whip antennas used on FM radios in the USA are approximately 75 cm (2.5 feet) long, which

1420-404: Is never approached in actual antennas unless the ground plane is many wavelengths in diameter. 2 dBi is more typical for a whip with a ground plane of 1 2 λ   . {\displaystyle {\tfrac {1}{2}}\lambda ~.} Whips mounted on vehicles use the metal skin of the vehicle as a ground plane. In hand-held devices usually no explicit ground plane

1491-449: Is possible with coils at about one-half or one-third and two-thirds that do not affect the aerial much at the lowest band, but it creates the effect of stacked dipoles at a higher band (usually ×2 or ×3 frequency). At higher frequencies the feed coax can go up the centre of a tube. The insulated junction of the tube and whip is fed from the coax and the lower tube end where coax cable enters has an insulated mount. This kind of vertical whip

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1562-426: Is provided, and the ground side of the antenna's feed line is just connected to the ground (common) on the device's circuit board. Therefore, the radio itself serves as a rudimentary ground plane. If the radio chassis is not a good deal larger than the antenna itself, the combination of whip and radio functions more as an asymmetrical dipole antenna than as a monopole antenna . The gain will be somewhat lower than

1633-463: Is roughly one-quarter the length of radio waves in the FM radio band, which are 2.78 to 3.41 m (9 to 11 feet) long. Half-wave whips ( 1 2 λ {\displaystyle {\tfrac {1}{2}}\lambda } long) which have greater gain , and five-eighth wave whips ( 5 8 λ {\displaystyle {\tfrac {5}{8}}\lambda } long) which have

1704-470: Is split into a horizontal lobe and a small second lobe at a 60° angle, so high angle radiation is poor. The input impedance is around 40 ohms. In a whip antenna not mounted on a conductive surface, such as one mounted on a mast, the lack of reflected radio waves from the ground plane causes the lobe of the radiation pattern to be tilted up toward the sky so less power is radiated in horizontal directions, undesirable for terrestrial communication. Also

1775-411: Is the quarter-wave whip , which is approximately ⁠ 1  / 4 ⁠ wavelength long. Whips are the most common type of monopole antenna , and are used in the higher frequency HF , VHF and UHF radio bands. They are widely used as the antennas for hand-held radios, cordless phones , walkie-talkies , FM radios , boom boxes , and Wi-Fi enabled devices, and are attached to vehicles as

1846-451: The J-pole antenna ). An advantage is that because it acts as a dipole it does not need a ground plane. The maximum horizontal gain of a monopole antenna is achieved at a length of five eighths of a wavelength 5 8 λ {\displaystyle {\tfrac {5}{8}}\lambda } so this is also a popular length for whips. However at this length the radiation pattern

1917-549: The electric field vertical and the magnetic field horizontal. Vertical whip antennas are widely used for nondirectional radio communication on the surface of the Earth, where the direction to the transmitter (or the receiver) is unknown or constantly changing, for example in portable FM radio receivers, walkie-talkies , and two-way radios in vehicles. This is because they transmit (or receive) equally well in all horizontal directions, while radiating little radio energy up into

1988-478: The 1989 model, weighing in at 6.9 ounces (200 g). Several changes were carried over from the MicroTAC Lite: the antenna base was shortened, the red LED display was dropped for a 10-character LCD display, and the keys were changed from white to black. The phone was available on the ETACS network. There was a single-band GSM model available in the UK that took credit-card sized SIM cards . The Classic had

2059-463: The Dyna-Tac was anticipated to be released to the public by 1985 because of U.S. Federal Communications Commission proceedings. While Motorola was developing the cellular phone itself, from 1968 to 1983, Bell Labs worked on the system called AMPS , while others designed cell phones for that and other cellular systems. Martin Cooper, a former general manager for the systems division at Motorola, led

2130-448: The Dyna-Tac would weigh 3 pounds (1.4 kg) and would cost between $ 60 and $ 100 per month. Motorola predicted that the cost would decrease to $ 10 or $ 12 per month in no more than 20 years. Motorola said that, while the Dyna-Tac would not use the same network as the existing mobile service network, it anticipated resolving this so that all mobile devices would use the same network by around 1980. By 1975, Motorola's expectations had changed;

2201-490: The DynaTAC International Series with green LEDs, and the DynaTAC 6000XL used a vacuum fluorescent display . These displays were severely limited in what information they could show. The battery allowed for a call of up to 60 minutes, after which it was necessary to charge the phone up to 10 hours in a trickle charger or one hour in a fast charger, which was a separate accessory. While still retaining

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2272-537: The DynaTAC name, the 6000XL was completely unrelated to the DynaTAC 8000 Series, in that it was a transportable phone meant for installation in a vehicle. The 6000XL was later reconfigured as the Motorola Tough Talker, with a ruggedized build intended for construction sites, emergency workers, and special events planners. The DynaTAC Series was succeeded by the MicroTAC Series in 1989. With

2343-450: The DynaTAC system in the US, not phones in use in the UK. Motorola MicroTAC The Motorola MicroTAC is a cellular phone first manufactured as an analog version in 1989. GSM -compatible and TDMA / Dual-Mode versions were introduced in 1994. The MicroTAC introduced a new " flip " design, where the "mouthpiece" folded over the keypad, although on later production the "mouthpiece"

2414-575: The StarTAC, the MicroTAC 650E ("E" for Enhanced Features) received some feature upgrades, such as selectable ringer styles, but lost the alpha-numeric phonebook. The 650E was available in gray or black. The 650E was one of the better selling models in the US, along with the Elite and DPC 550. The MicroTAC was produced up until 1998, when sales declined with the increasing popularity of the StarTAC. The phone

2485-592: The US in 1984. The DynaTAC's retail price, $ 3,995 (about $ 11,700 in 2023), ensured that it would not become a mass-market item (the minimum wage in the United States was $ 3.35 per hour in 1984, which meant that it required more than 1192 hours of work – more than 7 months at a standard 40-hour work week – just working for the phone, without taxes); by 1998, when Mitchell retired, cellphones and associated services made up two thirds of Motorola's $ 30   billion in revenue. On October 13, 1983, David D. Meilahn placed

2556-670: The US markets. One was the short-lived Micro DIGITAL model that operated on the AMPS and TDMA networks, and was similar in appearance to the Alpha model. The MicroTAC Lite was also available for the TDMA network. The other was the MicroTAC Select 6000e, with a design based on the International 8700. The Select models had large-format backlit LCDs, similar to those found on the MicroTAC 3000e and A725, which operated on CDMA networks. In 1996,

2627-531: The Ultra-Lite, which weighed 5.9 ounces (170 g), again holding the new record for the lightest phone available. This was due to it being the first phone that utilized NiMH batteries, although replacement batteries were often NiCDs because NiMHs were very expensive. The Ultra Lite was also the first phone with a vibrating ringer. In 1991, Motorola released the MicroTAC Classic which resembled

2698-458: The antenna's axis), with the radiated power falling off with elevation angle to zero on the antenna's axis. Whip antennas less than one-half wavelength long, including the common quarter wave whip, have a single main lobe , and with a perfectly conducting ground plane under it maximum field strength is in horizontal directions, falling monotonically to zero on the axis. With a small or imperfectly conducting ground plane or no ground plane under it,

2769-462: The antennas for car radios and two-way radios for wheeled vehicles and for aircraft. Larger versions mounted on roofs, balconies and radio masts are used as base station antennas for amateur radio and police, fire, ambulance, taxi, and other vehicle dispatchers. The whip antenna is a monopole antenna , and like a vertical dipole has an omnidirectional radiation pattern , radiating equal radio power in all azimuthal directions (perpendicular to

2840-554: The automobile's engine running. Mitchell's team, which included Martin Cooper , developed portable cellular telephony, and Mitchell was among the Motorola employees granted a patent for this work in 1973; the first call on the prototype was completed, reportedly, to a wrong number. Motorola announced the development of the Dyna-Tac in April 1973, saying that it expected to have it fully operational within three years. Motorola said that

2911-436: The battery, occasionally short circuiting it and rendering it unusable. Also, charging the battery at a high enough rate to substantially raise its temperature will cause the battery to wear at an accelerated rate, reducing the number of charge-discharge cycles that can be performed before the battery will need to be replaced. (However, considering the high cost of the DynaTAC, the cost of battery replacement would not typically be

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2982-591: The diminutive Motorola StarTAC was released, which provided fierce competition for MicroTAC. The phone received a redesign in 1996, with a more rounded case and thinner flip-lid. Two Memory Location keys were added to the phone. Base models were known as the DPC 650, which kept the 550's display. A more expensive model, the MicroTAC DPC 650E received the StarTAC 3000's 10-character LED display with separate battery and signal meters. It weighed 7.8 ounces (220 g). Like

3053-606: The end of 1998. With design underpinnings from the 8700, the dual-band International 8800 and 8900 (also known as the DB890 ) models were launched in 1997 and 1998 respectively. At the time of its launch, the International 8800 was the first mobile to work on both GSM 900 and 1800 bands. The International 8800 was rebadged for the Orange network as the Orange mr601 model. The success of their analogue microTAC handset blinded Motorola to

3124-548: The first commercial wireless call on a DynaTAC from his 1983 Mercedes-Benz 380SL to Bob Barnett, former president of Ameritech Mobile Communications , who then placed a call on a DynaTAC from inside a Chrysler convertible to the grandson of Alexander Graham Bell , who was in Germany for the event. The call, made at Soldier Field in Chicago, is considered to be a major turning point in communications. Later, Richard H. Frenkiel ,

3195-439: The first mobile telephone which could connect to the telephone network without the assistance of a mobile operator and could be carried about by the user. In certain markets, a brass swivel antenna was one of the aftermarket accessories then available. Motorola also offered a one-hour desktop charger, though the battery could get quite hot while charging at this accelerated rate. In some cases, this could cause major problems with

3266-424: The general result is to tilt the main lobe up so maximum power is no longer radiated horizontally but at an angle into the sky. Antennas longer than a half-wavelength have patterns consisting of several conical "lobes"; with radiation maxima at several elevation angles; the longer the electrical length of the antenna, the more lobes the pattern has. A vertical whip radiates vertically polarized radio waves, with

3337-474: The head of system development at Bell Laboratories, said about the DynaTAC: "It was a real triumph; a great breakthrough." U.S. Patent 3,906,166 , September 16, 1975 for a Radio Telephone System for the first cell phone was granted by Martin Cooper, Richard W. Dronsurth, Albert J. Leitich, Charles N. Lynk, James J. Mikulski, John F. Mitchell, Roy A. Richardson, and John H. Sangster. Two names were botched in

3408-624: The idea of a cellular system in 1947, and continued to petition the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for channels through the 1950s and 1960s, and research conducted at Motorola . In 1960, electrical engineer John F. Mitchell became Motorola's chief engineer for its mobile communication products. Mitchell oversaw the development and marketing of the first pager to use transistors. Motorola had long produced mobile telephones for cars that were large and heavy and consumed too much power to allow their use without

3479-598: The implications of the emerging GSM standard. This allowed Nokia to secure a competitive advantage with the Nokia 1011 that was released in 1992, a full two years ahead of the GSM version of the MicroTAC. This left only their Motorola International 3200 "brick" in the GSM market to compete with the Nokia 1011. Many in the industry regard this as the turning point in an industrial cellular landscape that Motorola had historically controlled. Several digital models were produced for

3550-413: The input impedance for a good match to standard 50-ohm coaxial cable . To match 75-ohm coaxial cable, the ends of the ground plane can be turned downward or a folded monopole driven element can be used. To reduce the length of a whip antenna to make it less cumbersome, an inductor ( loading coil ) is often added in series with it. This allows the antenna to be made much shorter than the normal length of

3621-616: The main body. Early DPCs of the 9800X-era featured the elongated antenna base, round-top side grips, and white-on-gray keypad. Later versions (most likely after 1991) lost the 9800X-specific physical features, but kept the same basic form. Bone white models were also available as special editions to cellular providers in the US. An upscale version of the DPC, known as the MicroTAC 950 , or the MicroTAC Alpha in later years featured an 8-character green or orange dot-matrix LED display and

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3692-432: The many options included security codes, two phone number operations, a charge rate and currency calculator, secretarial memory scratchpads, hands-free operation, keypad tones, memory protection, phone number and name storage, as well as cellular system operation options. In addition to the standard 12-button keypad, the MicroTAC had buttons for Power, Function, Name/Menu, End, Send, Clear, Store, and Recall. The left side of

3763-462: The maximum horizontal gain achievable by a monopole, are also common lengths. The gain and input impedance of the antenna is dependent on the length of the whip element, compared to a wavelength, but also on the size and shape of the ground plane used (if any). A quarter wave vertical antenna working against a perfectly conducting, infinite ground will have a gain of 5.19  dBi and a radiation resistance of about 36.8  ohms . However this gain

3834-515: The only phones to have the microphone and ringer in the mouthpiece. These components were moved to the main phone body in all other models. In 1989, the Digital Personal Communicator, or DPC, was introduced as a lower cost alternative to the 9800X. Light or dark gray in color, the phone featured a green or orange 7-character segment LED display. It closely resembled the 9800x in terms of the keypad design and background and

3905-552: The original filing; Leitich's surname was erroneously omitted, and Mikulski's first name was omitted. The original document was refiled by Motorola's legal staff, but has not yet been identified. The seeds of the idea for a portable cell phone can be traced to Mikulski, which were rejected by Mitchell for lack of sufficient business justifications. It is rumored that when Mitchell suddenly recognized during an attempted phone call that his 400 MHz phone had inherent limitations, he immediately reversed his previous decision and championed

3976-448: The phone featured two buttons for adjusting the volume up and down. While in alpha mode, the volume buttons toggled between upper-case and lower-case text. The model sold for between U.S. $ 2,495 and U.S. $ 3,495, and was produced into the early 1990s before being replaced by newer versions. Several variants of the 9800X existed, most notably models that featured a 10-character alpha-numeric liquid crystal display (LCD), which had

4047-553: The phone included car, desktop and overnight travel chargers, installed hands-free car kits, leather cases, and a selection of batteries. The slimmest battery then available was the Slim and Slim Extended (Life), followed by the Standard, XT, and Talk-Pak XT batteries. The Talk-Pak XT and XT used Nickel Metal-Hydride while the others used Nickel Cadmium . A Lithium Ion battery was introduced in 1994. The early 9800X-era MicroTACs were

4118-727: The portable cell phone concept. Several prototypes were made between 1973 and 1983. The product accepted by the FCC weighed 28 ounces (790 g) and was 10 inches (25 cm) high, not including its flexible "rubber duck" whip antenna . In addition to the typical 12-key telephone keypad, it had nine additional special keys: It employed some of the technology previously used in the ALOHAnet system, including metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) transceiver and modem technology. The DynaTAC 8 Series, Classic, Classic II, Ultra Classic, and Ultra Classic II had an LED display , with red LEDs ;

4189-423: The removal of analog network cells nearly all over the world, the DynaTAC models running on AMPS or other analog networks are mostly obsolete. Thus, they are more collectors' items than usable telephones. The International series, however, will still work, but only on GSM 900 cells. The DynaTac 8000X, due to its resemblance in size and weight to a standard clay-fired brick , was nicknamed the brick phone by users,

4260-550: The return of the alpha-numeric phonebook. The Alpha phones were "upscale" in that they had more user-programmable options. Also, Alpha phones featured the side grip arrow keys. Soon, an "affordable" DPC 550 came to the market. Almost identical to the Digital Personal Communicator, the DPC 550 featured little with the most basic of operations. On August 6, 1991, the MicroTAC Lite was introduced at 7.7 ounces (220 g). The Lite

4331-489: The same "Motorola" over blue diagonal lines on the inside of the flip, but lost the metallic front badge and blue lettering. In 1991, the MicroTAC Lite was simultaneously released in some markets (including Asia) as the MicroTAC II . Several models were produced in different versions for different networks, including AMPS , ETACS, NMT , and JTACS. Some of these models (presumably the newer ones) share volume buttons and

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4402-492: The same core body, antenna, screen, keypad, and batteries, but lacked the flip-lid cover. The MicroTAC 650E lost the flip and Memory Location keys and gained arrow keys to become the Profile 300E . This Profile 300e phone was also called Metro1, the model on the sticker was S7956A and featured a 2.5 mm headset jack. Many MicroTAC models were available with the upscale VIP option. VIP phones were black with gold lettering, had

4473-407: The sky where it is wasted. Whip antennas are normally designed as resonant antennas; the rod acts as a resonator for radio waves, with standing waves of voltage and current reflected back and forth from its ends. Therefore, the length of the antenna rod is determined by the wavelength ( λ {\displaystyle \lambda } ) of the radio waves used. The most common length

4544-405: The unbalanced impedance of the monopole element causes RF currents in the supporting mast and on the outside of the ground shield conductor of the coaxial feedline, causing these structures to radiate radio waves, which usually has a deleterious effect on the radiation pattern. To prevent this, with stationary whips mounted on structures, an artificial "ground plane" consisting of three or four rods

4615-441: The whip out of a narrow helix of springy wire. The helix distributes the inductance along the antenna's length, improving the radiation pattern, and also makes it more flexible. Another alternative occasionally used to shorten the antenna is to add a "capacity hat", a metal screen or radiating wires, at the end. However all these electrically short whips have lower gain than a full-length quarter-wave whip. Multi-band operation

4686-408: Was actually located in the base of the phone, along with the ringer. This set the standard and became the model for modern flip phones today. Its predecessor was the much larger and heavier Motorola DynaTAC "brick" phone, and it was succeeded by the Motorola StarTAC in 1996. "TAC" was an abbreviation of "Total Area Coverage" in all three models. The MicroTAC, released by Motorola on April 25, 1989,

4757-478: Was also produced in a rare MicroTAC Elite VIP ( pictured ), which had a black housing, gold lettering, and an orange LED display, over the ordinary Elite, which had a gray housing, a green LED display, and white lettering. The Elite series was a feature-packed phone and retailed for around $ 600. The phone included a first-ever two line display, for a total of 14 dot-matrix characters. There were also separate LED indicator meters for signal strength and battery, as well as

4828-637: Was not made available for mainstream use. The fate of these units is currently unknown; presumably most of them would have been destroyed for security reasons but at least one example survives as a museum exhibit. Design-wise, the CipherTAC took after the Elite VIP. The MicroTAC body was also used as the base model for the Motorola TeleTAC and the Flare series . The TeleTAC and Flare phones used

4899-522: Was still relatively commonplace into the early 2000s. However, due to its large size and weight, many owners of the phone upgraded to smaller models like the StarTAC. The CipherTAC was a spin-off of the MicroTAC series, running on the CDMA network. It offered unrecoverable, encrypted communication and was purpose-built in 1998 for the Secretary of State (then Madeleine Albright ) and other officials. It

4970-527: Was the lightest phone available, continuing the record of the 9800X. It was essentially a slimmer version of the Alpha. Another model, the Lite XL, was released around this time. It had a single-line green LED display and three Memory Location keys added. The Lite was quickly followed by the MicroTAC Ultra Lite. This phone was lighter and had longer battery life. In 1992, a new phone was released,

5041-399: Was the smallest and lightest phone available at the time. Upon its release, it made headlines across the world. The phone was released as the "MicroTAC Pocket Cellular Telephone." The first MicroTACs were known as the Motorola 9800X, a continuation of the numerical name Motorola gave their phones in the 1980s. The MicroTAC was designed to fit into a shirt pocket. These very rare phones featured

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