Blog post 4- ECTO Com Tech Timeline

 

Garrett Norberg                  

June 22, 2022

(COM-1450-01)

Almost 30 years ago in 1992, IBM made the very first smartphone which they named the Simone (Fig.1). In 1994, the first-ever smartphone was available for purchase to the public. This smartphone is not like the ones we all use today.  It was bulky,  and we could definitely not put this phone into your pocket or jacket. There were two individuals at IBM, Martin Cooper and W. Ray Young, who actually design the software and this technology. 

(Fig.1)

These inventions led to IBM seeing the opportunity to design the phone with touch screen capability. Not only did this phone have the ability for you to touch the screen for the first time in history, but it also had many things that have since become a staple in every smartphone. Some of these features that were on the Simone Personal communicator or SPC include the ability to send and receive emails and faxes. The Simone also had a calendar, address book, native appointment scheduler, 4.5-inch LCD touch-screen, Camera, world clock, and predictive stylus input screen keyboards! Wow. 

The problems IBM was trying to solve were fast communication, not being late, being up to date with your work, connecting people closer together, and having a cool phone that does not just sit in your house. Now with fast communication, IBM wanted people to feel more connected.  Of course, people were connected through phones but this phone introduced a Touch screen on the go.  There was nothing like it at the time. I like to think of this as the first glimpse into what the future holds for smartphones. Imagine what the future will bring.

This invention changed the world in the biggest way more than any invention before it. I could only compare it to the wheel. Without IBM taking the first steps into the world of the smartphone, who knows if we would have the smartphones we have today. IBM laid out the foundation for people such as Steve Jobs to look at where the smartphone started and made adjustments and learned from the people before him and fixed where they went wrong. Without this phone, we are looking at a world less connected and less informed.  To me, this invention changed the world for the better.

The problems this phone solved were easier communication over long distances. As I stated previously, without this phone, we are looking at who knows how many years it would have taken for someone else to create this invention. This is the foundation of the modern smartphone, and I really cannot think of a more important thing to discover in recent history, it's truly priceless.

This device changed communication because it allowed people to be able to communicate faster on the go. It was not a smart little phone but you could still carry it around and send emails and faxes. Not only does this lay out the blueprint for the modern smartphone it was the first of its kind no one had ever seen anything like this before It was truly the future and I love to research about it. 

There were several negatives about the Simone Personal Communicator. One of the biggest issues was the wireless carriers at the time were not ready to handle the intensive amounts of data the Simone required. With this problem of too much data, it would make the battery life very short compared to smartphones today lasting only an hour in "Talk Mode". On top of all that the price for the phone was set at $899. IBM had a tough time trying to sell the phone that you had to charge every hour at that price I guess people just didn't see the vision.






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