IBM Simon: the world's first smartphone turned 20 years old
20 years ago, in August 1994, an unusual device appeared on the US mobile device market: IBM Simon. This device was a hybrid of a mobile phone, PDA, pager, organizer, and much more, plus it supported connection to a fax.
In this case, the usual physical keyboard was not: there was only an on-screen keyboard, dubbed “intellectual, plus a virtual QWERTY-keyboard. ')
Of course, the dimensions of the first smartphone were rather big, and it weighed 500 grams. The developers equipped this wonderful device with an LCD display and a stylus, plus the device was compatible with a PCMCIA card.
A prototype of a smartphone from IBM, called COMDEX, was introduced two years earlier, in 1992. Well, this smartphone started selling already in 1994, at a price of $ 899, with a subsequent price reduction of up to $ 599.
The smartphone had its own applications (alarm clock, organizer, e-mail client and some others).
IBM Simon features:
16 MHz 16-bit processor, Vadem x86-compatible;
Touch (!) LCD display with a resolution of 160x293 (of course, the display was black and white);
OS: ROM-DOS, specific version of DOS;
1 MB of RAM (640 KB available);
1 MB of internal memory for system applications (compression is used, so the possible size was a little more than the stated);
Built-in 2400bps modem;
PCMCIA slot;
Weight: 500 grams.
If anyone is interested in detailed information about the device configuration, here are the specifications .
This phone was seen by representatives of the business sector, and the device was sold in 50 thousand copies. The device was quite popular, and even appeared in the film: