It is 'Ancestors' Smartphone

Smartphone aka smart phones lately more and more population. Actually, who are 'ancestors' of this smartphone? The answer it turns out is the IBM Simon.

Yes, IBM Simon which was introduced 20 years a lot of light referred to as the first smartphone in the world. He marketed the first time on August 16, 1994 At the time, it is called a smartphone yet.

"Simon was not called as a smartphone at that time., But its like as we are seeing now," said Charlotte Connelly, curator at the Science Museum London.

"There is a calendar can be used for writing notes, and send emails as well as messages and combine all of these things with mobile capabilities," said Connelly.

With gambot body weighing 500 grams, Simon is actually quite difficult to grasp or put into the pocket of clothing. But Connelly stated advanced design of the era.

"Like a brick but it really is not as big as you might think. Stylus and he has a green LCD screen the same size as the iPhone 4 In fact, his form was not bad," added Connelly quoted from the BBC on Monday (8/18/2014) .

IBM Simon only sold about 50 thousand pieces, probably because the price is comparatively very expensive at that time, ie EUR 899 With the current exchange rate in the range of USD 1400 or USD 16 million.

"The battery is only able to survive an hour and no mobile internet at the time. So he was not so successful," said Connelly.

However, the IBM Simon still considered revolutionary and begin the era of smartphones. The device for the first time successfully combines PDA functionality with cell phone technology.

"Simon is the first device that combines two things in a single package. He can do all things as in PDAs and fax capabilities as well as the email had though to be linked to a computer to do it. Which is why we call it the first smartphone," said Connelly.

IBM Simon could only be marketed in the United States. Now existence is endangered and some into museum collections.

Share this post