Released on Aug. 16, 1994, the IBM Simon Personal Communicator was the world’s first smartphone. The handheld, touchscreen PDA was on sale for less than a year before being rendered obsolete by the next tech innovation: flip phones.
*WHILE THE PHONE PICTURED ABOVE IS AN ORIGINAL 1994 IBM SIMON. THE PHOTOGRAPH WAS TAKEN IN 2014 TO MARK ITS 20TH ANNIVERSARY.
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