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 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 the sending and receiving of SMS text messages. 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 colour plastics and keypads. There were also a number of "private label" versions such as the Telekom model D1 327 (available on the D1 network in Germany) where a different label was affixed to a standard 3200 unit. (none of these variants are currently in the Mobile Phone Museum collection so if you have one you could spare we would love to hear from you). At one point, it was one of the most popular GSM phone in the UK. In August 1993 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".