World's first smartphone - IBM Simon - celebrates 20th anniversary with London Science Museum exhibit
The world’s first smartphone - IBM Simon - will be displayed in the London Science Museum to celebrate the 20 years since the device was first released.
The term smartphone was not coined until 1997
The mobile, which went on sale in August 1994, is widely regarded as the first ever smartphone due to its computing capabilities.
The black, touch screen device, which weighs half a kilogram, was the first mobile phone with apps and fax connectivity, however it only shipped 50,000 devices in the US.
The Simon featured apps including an address book, calendar, appointment scheduler, calculator, world time clock and electronic note pad.
Charlotte Connelly, curator of the London Science Museum, said: "The Simon wasn't called a smartphone back then.
"But it had a lot of the features we see today. It had a calendar, it could take notes and send emails and messages and combined all of this with a cell phone.
"It looks like a grey block but it's not as big as you'd imagine, and it had a stylus and a green LCD screen, which is similar in size to the iPhone 4. In fact, it's not a bad looking thing."
Connelly said the device was way ahead of its time: "It only had an hour's battery, it was $899 and there was no mobile internet at the time. So it wasn't very successful."
The Simon will go on display in October as part of the Information Age exhibition - the UK’s first gallery devoted to logging the history of communication and information technology.
IBM, the creator of the smartphone, last month announced it will work with iPhone manufacturer Apple to develop business apps.