The first commercial cell-phone call in the U.S. was made 25 years ago this week: Bob Barnett, then president of Ameritech Mobile Communications, placed the first commercial wireless call from inside a Chrysler convertible at Soldier Field in Chicago, to the grandson of Alexander Graham Bell, who was in Berlin.

The breakthrough had been a long time coming. Ten years earlier, Martin Cooper, widely regarded as the inventor of the cell phone, made a demonstration phone call to Joel Engel while walking the streets of New York. Cooper was then the general manager of Motorola's communications systems division; Engel was his counterpart at rival AT&T. But only in 1983 did the Federal Communications Commission approve mobile phones.

The first cell phone on the market, the Motorola DynaTAC 8000x, weighed 28 ounces (thus its nickname, "the brick") and had a retail price of $3,995. Little wonder, then, that in his 1987 film "Wall Street," Oliver Stone illustrated corporate raider Gordon Gekko's wealth, freedom and power with a scene in which Gekko stands on a beach, phone in hand, giving a rapt description of the sunrise to his disciple, Bud Fox.

In 1987, large numbers of the well-to-do had car phones, console-based affairs that gave one the unprecedented ability to conduct business while driving. But a phone that was not attached to anything at all — well, in 1987 that was a billionaire's toy.

Now, cell phones are ubiquitous, so much so that one might sometimes wish there were fewer of them. There are more than 262 million wireless users in the U.S. alone, and the industry's annual revenues have topped $140 billion. An entire generation has grown up using cell phones. An increasing number of consumers use them exclusively, going without a land line. Not even Superman bothers looking for a phone booth in which to change anymore.

Instead of a nearly 2-pound brick, today's cell phone weighs as little as 3 ounces. And the price? Phones often can be had for free with the purchase of a service plan.

Today's cell phones are not just for conversing. They take photos, capture video and browse the Internet. But what they mostly do is transfer text messages. From a user's perspective, it may well be described not as a telephone but as a voice-enabled telegraph.

According to Nielsen Mobile, text messaging overtook talking as the primary use for cell phones in the fourth quarter of 2007, when the average mobile customer sent 218 text messages a month and made 213 phone calls a month. Since then, the gap has grown; in this year's second quarter, the average user sent 357 text messages in a month — but made only 204 phone calls.

The gap is largest among teens, who averaged 1,742 text messages a month, versus 231 phone calls.

But it disappears completely among users 45 and older, who still use their phones primarily for the archaic purpose of talking to other people.

---

E-mail: egreen@post-gazette.com