subject: Ibm Simon, The First Smartphone In History [print this page] About to turn 20, was the first to bring a pen or touchscreen without buttons need.
We could define smartphones as devices that integrate in the same unit the characteristics of mobile phones and personal assistants or PDAs. Have become popular in recent years, and power often competes with the computer easier. However, its origins date back to 1992 when the IBM Simon was presented at the COMDEX. Simon offered $ 899-for-an interface based on a touch screen without physical buttons, with predictive text, calendar, pager and fax functions, and many of the functions now use daily. Marketed by BellSouth, was the first smartphone in history.
These smart phones are no longer a rarity for a device to become available to virtually everyone. Usually subsidized by mobile operators, which offer a lower price that they can be found in stores in exchange for a subscription subscribe for several months, have become very popular. Operating systems like Windows Mobile or Android, thanks to its user interface reminiscent of the computers available in "whole life", let their multiple functions can be used intuitively by anyone. But despite their widespread implementation is recent, it dates back to 1992.
Indeed, the "smartphone" is about to turn 20 years since the first prototype was presented to the public as part of COMDEX Las Vegas 1992. This is the IBM Simon, a mobile phone (then) revolutionary, designed and built by a joint venture between International Business Machines Corporation and BellSouth.
Simon was the first to use an interface based entirely on a touch screen, allowing access to all functions without having to press any hardware button. Unlike other touch of the time, like the Apple Newton, your IBM BellSouth and need not be operated by a stylus: just touch the screen with fingers so that the device recognize the selected commands. The final version of the IBM Simon was officially launched in 1993 and the first users started using it in 1994. It was sold at $ 899 and could operate in some 190 cities distributed over 15 different states of the United States.
Like most modern devices, the software contained in its ROM 2MB combined the features usually found on a phone system (call management, contact directory, redial, etc.) with which we expect to see in a "personal organizer" (PDA personal digital assistant), a pager and a FAX machine. Despite lacking a physical keyboard, the user could dial phone numbers using a keyboard device that drew on the screen, and enter the names of your contacts and text in general with a full touch QWERTY keyboard. A predictive text input helped the user to type faster.
As usual at that time, Simon had a PCMCIA slot in which you could insert a memory card extending the MB of RAM as standard. While their technical characteristics make it very back of any modern smartphone, operating system was efficient enough so that its operation was fast and fluid. 20 years later, some of their descendants resourced thousands of times greater, are not able Presumably the same thing.
