Portable Phones

                                                 

The Motorola Micro TAC was the cellular phone first manufactured as an analog version in 1989. GSM-compatible and TDMA/Dual-Mode versions were introduced in 1994. The MicroTAC introduced an innovative new "flip" design, where the "mouthpiece" folded over the keypad, although the "mouthpiece" was actually located in the base of the phone, along with the ringer. This set the standard and became the model for modern flip phones today. Its predecessor was the much larger Motorola DynaTAC and it was succeeded by the Motorola StarTAC in 1996. "TAC" was an abbreviation of Total Area Coverage in all three models.

In 1996, the diminutive Motorola StarTAC was released, which provided fierce competition for MicroTAC. The phone received a redesign in 1996, with a more rounded case and thinner flip-lid. Two Memory Location keys were added to the phone. Base models were known as the DPC 650, which kept the 550's display. A more expensive model, the MicroTAC DPC 650E received the StarTAC 3000's 10-character LED display with separate battery and signal meters. It weighed 7.8 ounces. Like the StarTAC, the MicroTAC 650E ("E" for Enhanced Features) received some feature upgrades, such as selectable ringer styles, but lost the alpha-numeric phonebook. The 650E was available in gray or black. The 650E was one of the better selling models in the US, along with the Elite and DPC 550.The MicroTAC was produced up until 1998, where sales declined with the increasing popularity of the StarTAC. The phone was still relatively commonplace into the early 2000s. However, due to its large size and weight, many owners of the phone upgraded to smaller models like the StarTAC.

                                                     

                                                    CipherTAC

                                               
                                                            

The CipherTAC was a spin-off of the MicroTAC series. It offered unrecoverable, encrypted communication and was purpose-built for the Secretary of State and other officials. It was not made available in mainstream. The fate of these units is currently unknown.

Design-wise, the CipherTAC took after the Elite VIP.

                                                  

                                                   Clone models

The MicroTAC body was also used as the base model for the Motorola TeleTAC and the Flare series. The TeleTAC and Flare phones used the same core body, antenna, screen, keypad, and batteries, but lacked the flip-lid cover. The MicroTAC 650E lost the flip and Memory Location keys and gained arrow keys to become the Profile 300E.

                                                   V.I.P Models

                                     
                                                 

Many MicroTAC models were available with the upscale VIP option. VIP phones were black with gold lettering, had a dark orange dot-matrix LED display (only 9800X models had a true red display) and additional menu features. Lites, Ultra-Lites, Lite IIs, Lite XLs, Elites, and Alphas were all available as VIP phones.