Motorola
International 3200

The Motorola International 3200 was the first hand-portable (Class 4) GSM phone; however, it was not the first GSM phone, with that honour falling to the transportable Orbitel 901. Its familiar “brick” design had been used for analogue phones for several years, starting with pioneering products such as the Motorola DynaTAC 8000x, so it was a logical extension of Motorola’s product line. It received its official “type approval” on 3 September 1992, which was several months after the Orbitel 901. Interestingly, it was not Motorola’s first GSM mobile phone – it had previously launched the Motorola International 1000, a transportable phone. The 3200 was able to make and receive calls, but did not support sending or receiving SMS text messages. It is also believed to be the first mobile phone to display the time / have a clock. It was manufactured in Flensburg, Germany, in a manufacturing facility that Motorola acquired when it bought Storno in the mid-1980s. The phone was also available in two other variants, the Bosch Cartel S 2G (which was available in several European markets ) and a version for Pioneer. These devices had different housings, which were based on the 3200 but with different-coloured plastics and keypads. There were also a number of "private label" versions, such as the Telekom model D1 334 (available on the D1 network in Germany), where a different label was affixed to a standard 3200 unit. At one point, it was one of the most popular GSM phones in the UK. In August 199,3 it was available for sale via high street retailer Carphone Warehouse for approximately £750 (equivalent to about £1500 in 2020). The price quickly dropped as other smaller, more attractive GSM devices came to market. In Germany, the 3200 was apparently known by the nickname "Bone".