The History of Touchscreen Smartphones

Introduction

• Discussion on the first all touch screen smartphone
• Common misconceptions about the original iPhone and LG Prada

Theodore Paraskevikos (1971)

• First person to envision devices combining telephone and computing capabilities
• Introduced concepts of intelligence, data processing, and visual display screens in telephones
• Issued over 20 patents and developed a special transmitter/receiver for Boeing
• Inventions largely unrecognized outside Boeing

Motorola Dynatac 8000X (1984)

• First mobile phone, bulky and inefficient
• Took 10 hours to charge for 30 minutes of talk time
• Seed for modern smartphones but not 'smart' itself

The Rise of PDAs (1992)

• Personal Digital Assistants becoming popular
• AT&T's vision of future personal communicators:
  • Integration of fax, phone, voicemail, and email
  • Desire for a system to work seamlessly on the go

IBM Simon Personal Communicator (1994)

• Prototype shown at Comdex trade show
• Developed by IBM, manufactured by Mitsubishi Electronics
• First smartphone:
  • Capable of making/receiving calls, sending/receiving faxes and emails
  • Included apps: address book, calendar, appointment scheduler, calculator, world time clock, notepad
  • Utilized touchscreen display and stylus
• Discontinued in February 1995 after selling 50,000 units

Technical Specifications

• 1MB of RAM and flash storage
• 16MHz processor (x86 compatible)
• Comparison: PCs of the day were around 20-100MHz
• Considered a powerhouse mobile computing device for its time

Conclusion

• Revolutionary concept that set the stage for future smartphones
• Took 13 more years for the industry to realize benefits of adaptable screens over fixed buttons
• Encouragement to explore more alternative technology topics by subscribing

Closing

• Presented by Dagogo from ColdFusion
• Thank you for watching, and stay tuned for more videos.