Happy Birthday, Smartphone!

[EmilieT]

Hi guys, 

No, it's not the Birthday of a mysterious member called Smartphone, but the anniversary of the release of the very first smartphone!

                                                                       

The IBM Simon Personal Communicator, considered to be the first smartphone, went on sale on 16 August 1994, 24 years ago today. It had a touchscreen, email capability, apps, and was the first stepping stone towards our beloved current digital companions. We've come such a long way since 1994 

Did any of you have an IBM Simon?

What was YOUR very first smartphone?

I'm very curious to see your replies, and please join me in wishing all smartphones around the world a very

happy Birthday 

[pgn]

I went from Motorola Timeport L7089 (on Genie, or BT Cellnet, I forget) through some excellent Sony Ericsson "i" phones, including the Sony Walkman (orange and black, forget the number - W850i?) to my first  "smartphone" in the SE range, the P1i. With its alphanumeric keypad and stylus, it replaced my need to carry both a phone AND a PalmPilot.

Does time not fly when you're having fun? 

[Anonymous]

One thing I do miss about some of those early phones, is that they tended to have exceptional battery life. A good four or five days usage was pretty much the norm (for some of the nokias, it was probably even longer).

Nowadays, we're almost chuffed that our smartphone has lasted most of the day 

[anticpated]

Smartphones are actually just portable computers with communication abilities in a more traditional fashion these days.

My first Sony phone was a walkman phone. One of the first to have front facing camera and video calling capability.

My first smartphone was a basic Samsung Europa.

[viridis]

My first Sony was a Sony CMD-X2000
Back when a jog-dial was a unique and rare thing...

[Anonymous]

My first rule with any phone is if it doesn't work well as a phone, it goes back or gets sold.

I had a Blackberry Pearl 3G which I hated so it got sold.

Next I had an HTC Desire S.

Nice device but didn't work well as a phone (didn't hang onto signal and thus call quality wasn't great)

Having owned an Ericsson S868, SE W300 and a K800i previously I next tried an SE Xperia Ray.

Nice phone but again not great for reception.

My next choice was a Samaung Galaxy Ace 2 which worked well as a smartphone and a phone, swapped when it became clear the software maintainence had reached the end of the road.

Next was an Ace 3, again great.

[viridis]

True story, 

I have the very first Sony Xperia device, the Xperia X1 still sealed and unopened boxed.

[Anonymous]

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@viridis wrote:

True story, 

I have the very first Sony Xperia device, the Xperia X1 still sealed and unopened boxed.

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WOW @viridis 

My first smartphone was a Nokia Lumia 640 lte

My first mobile phone was a basic Nokia (no camera, I believe) on Orange network

I change phones every 24 months unless irrevocably damaged by water (twice)