First smartphone in the world turns 20

The IBM Simon Personal Communicator is the world’s first smartphone. It was launched 20 years ago on August 16, 1994. Designed by IBM, the IBM Simon Personal Communicator was manufactured by Mitsubishi Electric Corp. It measured a whopping 38mm in thickness, was 8-inches tall and 2.5-inches wide. It ran on a Vadem 16MHz, 16-bit processor with 1MB of RAM and 1MB of storage. The operating system installed was ROM-DOS with file compression from Stacker and the UI was known as Navigator.

The smartphone was priced at $899 and IBM sold 50,000 units in the US, where it was exclusively available. It shipped along with a base station for charging, a protective leather cover/case, optional PCMCIA pager card, and RS232 cable for computer connectivity and an RJ11 cable for fax/phone connectivity.

The IBM Simon Personal Communicator wasn’t known as a smartphone back then, but used a stylus and could send emails, had a calendar and the stylus was meant for taking notes.

The ‘smart phone’ was a chunky brick-sized handset weighing 1.1lb (almost 500 gm). According to a report on the BBC, the phone could also be linked to a fax machine and was the first phone that could run apps.

The phone became popular with business professionals since it was the only portable communication device back then and additionally sported a mini computer onboard. Sadly, the smartphone could sustain only hour of battery life. The exorbitant price, the poor battery life and unavailability of Internet at that time were the major reasons for the phone to disappear from the market within two years of being commissioned.  

Photos: Max Teodorescu, Electronic Products, Hearst Business Communications