] "We sprung it on the engineers one day," he said, ] recalling their surprise at how small it was at the time. ] "There were only eight guys in the room. Cooper said ] 'Anybody who doesn't believe this can be done, leave the ] room.'" ] ] No one did. But it was another 10 years and a total of ] $100 million in development costs before the phone was ] officially unveiled in 1983 %u2014 the delay resulting ] mostly from the need to build towers and infrastructure another great example of how 'innovation' doesn't come quick or easy. Now, the US market for cell communiatons produces over $73B in revenue each year and is growing nearly 20% per year still. |