A phone that was also a computer
In November 1992, IBM showed a prototype at the COMDEX computer trade show in Las Vegas. It was a hand-held device that combined a cellular phone with the functions of a personal digital organizer and had a touch-sensitive screen. Two years later, a version went on sale as the IBM Simon Personal Communicator. It is frequently called the first smartphone, a title that depends on how the word is defined but is not unreasonable for what the device could do.
The Simon is generally associated with IBM engineer Frank Canova, who is credited with the concept of a phone combined with a handheld computer. As with many products, many people worked on it, including hardware and software teams within IBM and partners that supplied the phone radio and other parts.
How it was sold
The Simon was sold in the United States starting in August 1994, mainly through BellSouth Cellular, which offered it with a service contract. A frequently quoted price is about $900 with a contract, and a considerably higher price without one; sources vary on the details. Reports of total sales usually give a figure in the tens of thousands, and the product was withdrawn after roughly six months on the market. Because it was a short-lived, low-volume product, few survive today, and original units are sought by collectors and museums.
What it could do
The Simon’s features are impressive for the time.
- Touchscreen. A monochrome liquid crystal display that responded to touch, by finger or with a stylus. Tapping icons opened the main functions, which fit the idea of touchscreen interfaces long before they became standard.
- Phone. A cellular phone that worked on the analog networks then in use, with an on-screen keypad for dialing.
- Organizer. A calendar, address book, world clock, calculator, note pad and a sketch pad.
- Messaging. The ability to send and receive email and faxes through the phone, at a time when fax transmission was still common in offices, and to send paging messages.
- On-screen keyboard. A small keyboard shown on the screen for typing text, though it was small for fingers.
- Expansion. A slot for memory cards that could add programs from outside, and a few games.
It also came with a charging base. In its time, the combination of these features in one device was unusual.
The limits
Several limits explain why it did not catch on.
Size and weight. It was about eight inches long and weighed roughly a pound, so it was much thicker and heavier than the phones of its day, and awkward to hold to the ear.
Battery life. Reports commonly mention about an hour of talk time, and shorter when other functions were used. A user who depended on it needed to charge it often.
Network. The analog cellular networks of the time were built for voice, and data over them was slow and limited. Sending an email or fax was possible but not fast. Without a fast connection, many of the functions that later made smartphones useful could not exist, such as web browsing, maps and app downloads.
Price and awareness. The price was high for a general consumer, and the market for such a device was not yet well understood. Many people did not know what to do with a phone that also acted as a computer.
Software. The set of programs was limited, and there was no established way for outside developers to reach users.
Why it matters
The Simon was a proof of concept. It showed that the three ideas that later defined smartphones, a touch interface, a set of organizer functions and communication by email, could live in one device. Its limits were mainly a matter of surrounding technology: batteries, displays, processors and networks that were not yet ready.
Other devices of the following years extended the idea in different directions, such as phones with keyboards that focused on email, and handhelds with larger screens. The path to the phones of the late 2000s, with capacitive touchscreens, fast data and app stores, was not a straight line from the Simon, and the later designs were not copies of it.
The first smartphone?
Whether the Simon deserves the title depends on the standard.
- If a smartphone is defined as a phone that can also run organizer programs and handle email, the Simon is a strong candidate, with some qualification about whether other prototypes existed earlier.
- If it is defined as a device with an app store, web browsers and fast data, then the Simon does not qualify, and the title belongs to much later products.
- If the question is the first widely successful smartphone, the answer is clearly different again.
A fair way to describe it is as the first widely cited commercial phone to combine a touchscreen with a set of built-in computing functions. The Simon was too early to be a market success, but it showed what was possible, and that is enough to give it a place in the history of the smartphone.