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The IBM Simon, on sale in the United States from August 1994, was a mobile phone with a touchscreen, email, fax, a calendar, an address book and other built-in apps. It is often called the first smartphone, and it came out 13 years before the iPhone.

IBM, 1992

TechnologyHistory

The story behind the card

The IBM engineer Frank Canova realised that chips and wireless technology had become small enough for a handheld device. IBM showed a prototype, code-named Sweetspot, at the COMDEX trade show in Las Vegas in November 1992; it even demonstrated maps, share prices and news long before such services were common. Mitsubishi Electric built the finished phone, and the American operator BellSouth named it the Simon Personal Communicator and sold it for 899 dollars with a two-year contract. Users wrote on it by tapping an on-screen keyboard with a stylus. The high price and a battery that lasted only about an hour held sales back: about 50,000 were sold in six months, and it was withdrawn in February 1995.

Türkçe oku
Ağustos 1994'te ABD'de satışa çıkan IBM Simon, dokunmatik ekranlı bir cep telefonuydu. E-posta ve faks gönderebiliyordu; içinde takvim, adres defteri gibi uygulamalar da vardı. iPhone'dan 13 yıl önce çıkan Simon, çoğu zaman ilk akıllı telefon olarak anılır.

IBM mühendisi Frank Canova, çiplerin ve kablosuz iletişim donanımının artık avuç içine sığacak kadar küçüldüğünü fark etmişti. IBM, Sweetspot kod adlı ilk örneği Kasım 1992'de Las Vegas'taki COMDEX teknoloji fuarında tanıttı. Bu örnekte harita, borsa fiyatları ve haberler bile vardı; üstelik bu hizmetler henüz yaygınlaşmamıştı. Satışa sunulan telefonu Mitsubishi Electric üretti. Amerikan operatörü BellSouth cihaza Simon Personal Communicator adını verdi ve iki yıllık sözleşmeyle 899 dolara sattı. Yazı, ekrandaki klavyeye özel bir kalemle dokunarak giriliyordu. Yüksek fiyatı ve yalnızca bir saat kadar dayanan pili satışları kısıtladı: Altı ayda yaklaşık 50.000 adet satıldı ve telefon Şubat 1995'te piyasadan çekildi.

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