Simon personal communicator phone

BellSouth Cellular Corp. The Simon Personal Communicator was the first personal digital assistant or PDA to include telephony features make phone calls.

Ibm simon release date

The battery lasted only an hour, and flip phones became increasingly slim which led to its demise. With advances in MOSFET metal—oxide—semiconductor field-effect transistor, or MOS transistor technology enabling smaller integrated circuit chips be powered [ 11 ] and the proliferation of wireless mobile networks , [ 12 ] [ 13 ] IBM engineer Frank Canova realised that chip-and-wireless technology was becoming small enough to use in handheld devices.

The Sweetspot prototype combined a mobile phone and PDA into one device, allowing a user to make and receive telephone calls, facsimiles, emails and cellular pages. Not only did the prototype have many PDA features including a calendar, address book and notepad, but also demonstrated other digital services such as maps, stocks and news before they were widely available.

The day after Sweetspot's debut, USA Today featured a photo on the front page of the Money section showing Frank Canova, IBM's lead architect and inventor of the smartphone, [ 19 ] [ 20 ] holding the Sweetspot prototype. IBM initially approached Motorola to manufacture the product, but Motorola rejected the offer, concerned that IBM could become a potential rival mobile manufacturer.

IBM then approached Mitsubishi to build the device. BellSouth executives gave the finished product its final name, "Simon Personal Communicator", before its public debut at the Wireless World Conference in November BellSouth Cellular sold approximately 50, units during the product's six months on the market.