General Information

Serial #

Prototype

Part Number

1

Total Parts

3

AKA

N/A

Patents

N/A

General Description

Synthetic radiotelephone model.

Dimensions

Note: These reflect the general size for storage and are not necessarily representative of the object's true dimensions.

Length

14.0 cm

Width

6.5 cm

Height

2.3 cm

Thickness

N/A

Weight

N/A

Diameter

N/A

Volume

N/A

Lexicon

Group

Communications

Category

Radio

Sub-Category

N/A

Manufacturer

AKA

Northern Telecom

Country

Canada

State/Province

Unknown

City

Unknown

Context

Country

Canada

State/Province

Ontario

Period

Mid-1990s

Canada

Bell Northern Research, was the research and development subsidiary of Northern Telecom (later Nortel Networks) and Bell Canada. It was built by Northern Telecom at its Trans-Canada plant in Montreal. Northern Telecom and its predecessor, Northern Electric, was for decades Canada’s largest manufacturer of telecommunications equipment. Originally a subsidiary of the AT&T-owned Western Electric, for which it manufactured American-designed products for the Canadian market, Northern Electric became Canadian-owned in the 1950s and in the 1960s began to design and produce equipment to meet the distinctive needs of Canadian telecommunication companies. In the 1970s, through its new research subsidiary, Bell Northern Research, the company made a concerted shift from conventional analogue equipment into the emerging field of digital communications, becoming in the 1980s the first equipment supplier to provide a complete line of fully digital switching and transmission gear. During this decade the company moved aggressively into export markets, and opened manufacturing and R&D operations in several countries. The company’s sales soared during the internet boom of the 1990s, but a combination of poor financial decisions and a failure to maintain its technological edge led eventually to its bankruptcy in 2009. One of the core elements of the Nothern Telecom (later Nortel) was the Industrial Design group headed by John Tyson. This group was responsible for the design of Northern Telecom products and interfaces. The Contempra phone was the first consumer product developed by the Industrial Design group. Later consumer telephone designs followed were based on how and where the consumers would use these telephones (Imagination series). The Orbitor was an attempt by the Industrial Design group to develop a consumer cellular telephone designed for the office worker of the mid-1990s.

Function

Serves as a design prototype for the Nortel Orbitor cellular telephone.

Technical

Rapid prototype 3D model of the Nortel Orbitor cellular telephone. The telephone was designed to integrate the screen functionality of a Palm Polit (touch activated with stylus) with a cellular telephone. It also integrated java enabled web browsing and was able to send and receive messages and emails. The Orbitor was to include an advanced voice-recognition system allowing users to speak commands and dictate messages directly. In many ways, the Orbitor design foreshadowed the touch screen, voice activated smart cellular telephones.

Area Notes

Unknown

Details

Markings

Printed on simulated screen: "Monday, Nov. 2/ 10:32am/ Received 3 messages/ during your meeting/ Change/ Mode/ Make a/ Call/ 3 New/ Msgs."/ Circuit board markings read in part: "nt/ northern/ telecom"

Missing

Appears complete

Finish

Predominantly light grey with blue buttons, dark grey speaker cover and a clear simulated screen with black printed markings over a green circuit board.

Decoration

N/A