The only thing that was in my mind when we made that first phone call was, 'Is it going to work?' We had all these parts hand soldered together, engineers standing by with the soldering iron - just in case.
Martin CooperRead
You have to immerse yourself into a product and use it in order to really understand it and that's why I have a new cellphone every month or two.
Interpretation
What this quote means
To truly comprehend a product, one must engage with it directly and frequently.
In this quote, Martin Cooper emphasizes that hands-on experience is crucial for understanding a product. By constantly using various cellphones, he illustrates that immersion leads to deeper insights and familiarity with technology, which is essential in an ever-evolving industry.
Themes
ImmersionUnderstandingExperienceTechnologyProduct
In practice
Example use cases
During a product launch presentation, one could use this quote to stress the importance of user experience.
More from Martin Cooper
All quotes βPeople are mobile. They move around, and anytime they want to communicate, if you tie them to the wall or the wires, you're restricting them, you're infringing on their freedom.
Martin CooperRead
As I walked down the street while talking on the phone, sophisticated New Yorkers gaped at the sight of someone actually moving around while making a phone call. Remember that in 1973, there weren't cordless telephones, let alone cellular phones. I made numerous calls, including one where I crossed the street while talking to a New York radio reporter - probably one of the more dangerous things I have ever done in my life.
Martin CooperRead
When you are doing one thing - talking on your phone, texting, whatever - you are automatically not doing something else. What is the greatest scarcity in the world today? It's not oil. It's time. Time is precious. Don't throw it away.
Martin CooperRead
Somehow in the last 100 years, every time there is a problem of getting more spectrum, there is a technology that comes along that solves that problem.
Martin CooperRead
It pleases me no end to have had some small impact on people's lives because these phones do make people's lives better. They promote productivity, they make people more comfortable, they make them feel safe and all of those things.
Martin CooperRead
Similar quotes
The function of entrepreneurs is to reform or revolutionize the pattern of production by exploiting an invention or, more generally, an untried technological possibility for producing a new commodity or producing an old one in a new way, by opening up a new source of supply of materials or a new outlet for products, by reorganizing an industry and so on.
Joseph A. SchumpeterRead
The next great technology revolution might be around the corner, but it won't automatically improve most people's lives. That will depend on politics, which is indeed ugly but also inescapable.
George PackerRead
I may be just an empty flesh terminal reliant on technology for all my ideas, memories and relationships, but I am confident that all of that everything that makes me a unique human being is still out there somewhere, safe in a theoretical storage space owned by giant, multinational corporations.
Stephen ColbertRead
When producers want to know what the public wants, they graph it as curves. When they want to tell the public what to get, they say it in curves.
Marshall McluhanRead
At one point in time, you had to choose, 'Do you want to do consumer or enterprise?' But the reality today is a bit different: Enterprises are a collection of consumers.
Tim CookRead
An awful lot of successful technology companies ended up being in a slightly different market than they started out in. Microsoft started with programming tools, but came out with an operating system. Oracle started doing contracts for the CIA. AOL started out as an online video gaming network.
Marc AndreessenRead