We absolutely take the idea of mobile phones for granted these days, but it really wasn’t that long ago that they were utterly experimental technology — as this clip from the late 1970s so amply shows.
There’s nothing — and I mean nothing — about this 1970s BBC clip that I don’t adore.
This isn’t a new clip — I mean, it obviously dates from the 1970s when mobile phones weren’t much more (as the clip explains) than radios — but it’s been on YouTube for 10 years now too, so maybe you’ve seen it before. I certainly hadn’t when it bounced into my YouTube feed. As someone who makes a living writing about mobile phones, I could not resist clicking on it.
I certainly wasn’t disappointed, whether you’re a fan of 70s shooting styles, fashions, vehicles — or indeed technology predictions, with the experimental phone, the fact that it apparently wasn’t going to go anywhere in the UK due to a lack of licensed spectrum (gee, that sounds familiar) or even the blooper reel bit at the end.
Glorious stuff that reminds us that we’ve come a long, long way.