Exceptionally rare new, unused IBM Simon Personal Communicator (simply known as IBM Simon), which has been retrospectively referred to as the first true smartphone due to Simon's features and capabilities. Designed by IBM and manufactured by Mitsubishi Electric, this innovative handheld, touchscreen PDA (personal digital assistant) was distributed in the United States by BellSouth Cellular Corp. between August 1994 and February 1995, selling 50,000 units. The Simon was the first PDA to include telephony features (make phone calls). In addition to the Simon itself, which comes with a docked nickel-cadmium battery, also included is the original box, charging base station and car charger, an extra battery, a protective leather cover, and the user manual. In fine condition, with some wear and labels to the box.
The IBM Simon is widely regarded as one of the first devices that could be termed a ‘smartphone’ – although, when it was launched, it was characterized as a PDA with communication capabilities via a cellular connection, the result of IBM's desire to design a ‘computer that could fit in your shirt pocket.’ Applications included on the Simon beyond the phone were an address book, e-mail support (via Lotus cc:Mail), a calculator, a calendar, the ability to send a fax, a notepad, a world clock, a file manager, a sketch pad and paging support (via a ‘paging card’ that could be inserted into the PCMCIA slot on the device).
The Simon also had a stylus that allowed users to draw on the screen offering the breakthrough capability of being able to write or draw on the phone and have the content sent as fax. The PDA could also be used to type by selecting letters on a QWERTY keyboard that was displayed on the screen. IBM also introduced a technology called ‘predictive keyboard’ on the Simon. When using this function, only a portion of the keyboard was displayed on the LCD and when a user selected a letter, Simon would predict the next letters the user was most likely to choose and display them on the screen. It has been reported that BellSouth sold approximately 50,000 units between 1994 and 1995, making this a very rare device today.
