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Home  » Get Ahead » Is it a projector? No, it's a camera! Oh no, it's a mobile phone!

Is it a projector? No, it's a camera! Oh no, it's a mobile phone!

January 18, 2015 10:59 IST
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That's how kids reacted when they saw the phone that was made to make the first-ever mobile call in the UK.

The iPhones, the Nokias or the Samsungs may have added a new meaning to the idea of communication and the way we look at mobile phones, but ever imagined what it would have been like in the days when mobile phones were still in its baby stage?

It was 30 years ago when the first ever mobile phone call was made in Britain by Vodafone, after which it revolutionised the meaning of mobile phones.

On January 1, 1985, Michael Harrison, the son of former Vodafone chairman Sir Ernest Harrison, became the first person to make a mobile phone call in the UK. The first ever mobile phone call was, however, made 40 years, on April 3, 1973, by Motorola employee Martin Cooper.

The call was made on the Transportable Vodafone VT1, which weighed 4.7 kgs, which at that time cost a whopping £1,650.

Michael Harrison left his family's New Year's Eve party at their home in Surrey to surprise his father, calling him from London's Parliament Square.

As Sir Ernest Harrison answered the phone, Michael said: "Hi Dad. It's Mike. This is the first-ever call made on a UK commercial mobile network".

Today, when children are born in the era of mobile phones, it was interesting to see how children reacted when they were introduced to the 1985 device.

The video that has already gone viral on social networking sites, has kids identifying the device as a projector, a tape recorder, a filming camera.

When quizzed as to what the device is, Tom, aged 9, figured it was a tape recorder.

Andreas, 8 thought the device was a calculator, while Milie thought it as a projector.

So can you imagine a life without mobile phones today?

"That's crazy," said Ana, aged 5.

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