Dr. Joe Rush is matching Giving Tuesday gifts for new and current members - but we only have a few more hours! ⏰ Donate Now!

The first smartphone turns 20

Molly Wood Aug 18, 2014
HTML EMBED:
COPY

The first smartphone turns 20

Molly Wood Aug 18, 2014
HTML EMBED:
COPY

20 years ago this past Saturday, IBM’s Simon Personal Communicator went on sale. It had a screen, calendar, and could send email, making it by some measures the world’s first smartphone. The phone was not exceptionally well received when it was released. BBC Tech Reporter Claire Brennan joined us to explain exactly what it was.

“It looked and felt very different from the modern iPhones and Androids we are used to,” Brennan said.

It got its name from the game Simon says, a marketing attempt to emphasize the apparent usefulness of the device.

The phone was rather large and heavy, weighing half a kilogram, and was priced at the extreme high end of the market, costing $899 at launch.

The model, which was only sold in the US, was not commercially successful, a victim of its size, expense, and a lack of the digital infrastructure taken for granted today, such as wi-fi hotspots and cellular data.

There’s a lot happening in the world.  Through it all, Marketplace is here for you. 

You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible. 

Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.