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`Before IPhone and Android Came Simon, the First Smartphone - Bloom berg
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`Before IPhone and Android Came Simon, the First Smartphone
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`Ira Sager
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`June 29, 2012, 8:50 AM EDT
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`Simon next to an iPhone. Looks like the physical differences between any 5- and 20-year old
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`In the 1995 techno thriller, The Net, Sandra Bullock plays a software programmer who unwittingly uncovers a plot to gain access to the world’s
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`most sensitive computers. The bad guy, played by Jeremy Northam, tries to kill Bullock literally and virtually—by stealing her identity. (For a
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`hacker, Bullock’s character is remarkably dim; when she finally catches on to what’s happening, she whines: “Our whole lives are on the
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`computer.”) Apple gets the customary product cameo as the movie imagines a world in which ordering pizza online or accessing a database
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`from a laptop computer in a car is commonplace.
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`
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`https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2012-06-29/before-iphone-and-android-came-simon-the-first-smartphone
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`Before iPhone and Android Came Simon, the First Smartphone - Bloom berg
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`T
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`June 28 (Bloomberg) -- Long before the smartphone revolution, IBM and Be||South teamed up to build and sell the Simon Personal Communicator, a 1—pound, $899 mobile phone
`that ran apps and featured the first touch screen. It lasted just six months after being put on the market in the summer of 1994. (Source: Bloomberg)
`
`A second product has a more prominent role, only there’s no logo or corporate sponsor credited for the cell phone used by Northam’s villain. In
`the final chase scene, he makes a call simply by pressing his phone’s touchscreen. When The Net was made, there was only one cell phone with
`a touchscreen and sufficient smarts for one-touch dialing: the Simon Personal Communicator. By the time the movie hit theaters that summer,
`the phone was off the market after its brief, six-month run before consumers. At least Simon left a more lasting impression than the movie did.
`
`Personal Communicators
`
`
`
`April 20, 1992
`
`May 15. 1992
`
`Pfnlaqllphf n, wandnury I lunch:-I
`
`I A
`
`pril 6. 1992
`
`Early prototype designs. The yellow one (never produced) got all
`the attention in presentations
`
`Simon was the first smartphone. Twenty years ago, it envisioned our app-happy mobile lives, squeezing the features of a cell phone, pager, fax
`machine, and computer into an 18-ounce black brick. The touchscreen (monochrome) had icons you tapped, or poked with a stylus, for e-mail,
`calculator, calendar, clock, and a game called Scramble in which you moved squares around the screen until you formed a picture. It featured
`
`predictive typing that would guess the next characters as you pecked. And it had apps, or at least a way to deliver more features—including a
`camera, maps, and music—by plugging a memory card into the phone.
`
`
`
`Be||South wanted customers to think of the phone as being as
`easy to use as “Simon Says
`
`It would take an additional 10 years before anyone called a cell phone “smart,” and a further five before the iPhone shattered our View of what
`
`these digital devices could do for us. Simon retailed for $899 and sold approximately 50,000 units. If you were a heavy data user, you had about
`60 minutes before you needed to recharge—as little as 30 minutes in areas with poor cell coverage. The Smithsonian Institution has one.
`Nearly two decades later, you can still find Simons for sale by collectors at the same retail price.
`
`When a few IBM engineers first showed a working prototype at the 1992 Comdex computer show in Las Vegas, the model was code-named
`“Angler” and drew crowds of people eight-to-10 deep. BellSouth Cellular teamed with IBM to turn it into a commercial product with a Milton-
`Bradley-meets-Gene-Rodenberry name. The two companies hold 11 Simon-related patents—including how to highlight text on a touchscreen
`
`https://www.b|oom berg.com/news/arti cl es/201 2-06-29/before-i phone-and-android-cam e-si mon-the-fl rst-smartphone
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`1/23/2017
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`Before |Phone and Android Came Simon, the First Smartphone - Bloom berg
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`to do things like place a call, update apps in the field, and remotely set up and activate a cell phone—among other unique functions that are
`now standard on smartphones.
`
`The story of Simon is the timeless lesson of tech innovation: Groundbreaking products require a rich ecosystem before the “big idea” can
`become truly useful or widespread. In this case, what was needed included fast networks, Web browsers, and a whole lot of apps waiting to be
`pulled off the Internet. In the early 1990s, none of these were available. Phone networks were designed mostly for voice, not sending data.
`When Simon was conceived, a Web browser had yet to be released. IBM was hemorrhaging money and people, losing $16 billion and over
`100,000 jobs in the years from 1991 to 1993. In the end, technical limitations, product delays, a world-class corporate meltdown, revolving-door
`management, and bad business decisions conspired against Simon.
`
`
`
`Plastic mockups of memow cards show how additional features
`(today's apps) could make Simon versatile
`
`IBM and Bellsouth chose to drop the phone and abandon a next-generation version of Simon that would have been closer in size to an iPhone.
`Motorola, a supplier of the cellular smarts for the prototype, passed when it came time to build the product, concerned that it would be helping
`IBM become a future competitor. Mitsubishi (6503:JP) replaced Motorola and built the commercial product.
`
`Simon’s short lifespan also illustrates how truly original tech products feed so many other creative efforts, if not those of its creators—at least
`directly. “The innovations of the Simon are reflected in virtually all modern touchscreen phones,” writes Bill Buxton in an e—mail. Buxton, a
`computer scientist at Microsoft Research, has been collecting groundbreaking tech gadgets for 30 years. He has two Simons, including one in
`
`its original box.
`
`It’s somehow fitting that Simon is nowhere in the credits of The Net. IBM has no record of Simon in its archives. The company passes inquiries
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`on to BellSouth, which merged with AT&T in an $86 billion deal in 2006. The original engineers that worked on Simon still refer to themselves
`as “Simoneers.” In over 20 conversations and e-mail exchanges I had with the BellSouth and IBM team members about the project, some
`memories had faded over time. But the team discussed its technical accomplishments with pride, despite Simon’s belly flop in the market.
`
`Frank J. Canova Jr. is the IBM engineer who came up with the original concept for Simon. With 51 patents logged over the course of his career,
`he always had a few ideas banging around in his head. In the early ’90s, he was thinking chip—and—wireless technology was becoming small
`enough to put in the palm of your hand. He described his concept to colleagues, including his boss Jerry Merckel, who was on an industry task
`force working up specifications for a now defunct device (the PCMCIA card) that could plug into a laptop computer for extra memory—the
`
`grandfather of today’s thumb drives. Merckel realized the cards could be used to launch other apps or services for Canova’s phone. He just
`needed approval to build a prototype.
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`https://www.b|oom berg.com/news/arti cl es/201 2-06-29/before-i phone-and-android-cam e-si mon-the-fl rst-smartphone
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`Before |Phone and Android Came Simon, the First Smartphone - Bloom berg
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`Paul C. Mugge indirectly put all this in motion after he became director of the Florida Research Lab in late 1988—long after the glory days of
`the IBM Personal Computer Co.—with a mandate to re-energize development. Mugge put together a small team of engineers including Canova
`and Merckel to explore ways to use ever-smaller, more powerful electronics to build new products.
`
`One day in Mugge’s oflice, he listened to Merckel’s pitch. “This is the phone of the future,” Merckel said, reaching into a sleek black aluminum
`box to pull out plastic cards, all in different colors. (Those cards didn’t function and were purely for show; they had been created by Hunter T.
`Foy, who headed a small group of industrial designers attached to the lab.) Merckel explained to Mugge that you plug the card into the phone to
`
`get directions or music. One card, labeled “ZZ Top’s Greatest Hits” (with a picture of the group), was Merckel’s personal favorite. On reading the
`label, Mugge asked: “Who’s ZZ Top?” He approved the project anyway.
`
`The applications on those cards became the core of IBM’s first services, code-named InTouch. “We knew services would make or break Simon,”
`
`says Mugge, now executive director of the Center for Innovation Management Studies at North Carolina State University. “As you see with
`Apple, without apps [the iPhone] is just a device. It all came to pass—unfortunately 15 years later,” he says.
`
`To give the concept form, IBM turned to Frog Design, a rare move because the computer giant never went outside for design work. When Foy
`projected it would cost $80,000 to create the prototype, he says, Merckel and Mugge “threw up on it.” When Frog didn’t come up with anything
`radically different from Foy’s early sketches, he was soon back on the project. IBM paid Frog $49,760 for its sketches, according to an unsigned
`copy of the agreement.
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`There wasn’t much leeway for Frog to come up with a different look. The phone could be only so small. The memory cards dictated a certain
`
`width. The touchscreen had a set thickness. And you needed a battery with enough juice to power the device. The finished prototype is the
`Shaq of phones, standing 8 inches high, 2.5 inches wide, and 1.5 in. thick. Pull out your smartphone and you’ll see the difference.
`
`Everything about the phone required something unique, from the motherboard housing an Intel chip to the operating system and on to the
`way all its features interrelated. At first there was no rush to produce the prototype, but IBM decided 14 weeks before Comdex that it wanted to
`display the device at the trade show. The race was on. Canova and other engineers worked 80-hour weeks, including weekends, right up to the
`last day.
`
`The prototype at Comdex displayed a map of the Las Vegas strip, plus stock quotes. There was no website for Canova to download that
`information, so he scanned the maps into the prototype’s memory from printed sources and punched in sample ticker data. “It was hard for
`
`people to believe back then you would carry maps or stock quotes in your phone,” he says. “As we know now, it was just the tip of the iceberg.”
`
`When the team finished the prototype—it wasn’t clear they’d make the deadline until two weeks before the show—IBM sent a manager to
`Florida to make sure “Angler” worked as advertised. (A substitute was ready if it didn’t.) It worked too well: The company made the team
`encase each of the three prototypes for Comdex in bulky, see-through plastic housing to make clear that these were not finished products. “IBM
`was afraid people would want to buy it,” says Canova.
`
`In truth, IBM wasn’t sure it wanted to be in the phone business. Alan Testani recalls showing Jack Keuhler, then IBM’s top technologist, a
`prototype. Keuhler, an internal critic of IBM’s already troubled communications effort, called it “a World War II walkie talkie.” It wasn’t a
`compliment.
`
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`https://www.b|oom berg.com/news/arti cl es/201 2-06-29/before-i phone-and-android-cam e-si mon-the-fl rst-smartphone
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`1/23/2017
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`Before |Phone and Android Came Simon, the First Smartphone - Bloom berg
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`Early prototype designs. The yellow one, which was never
`produced, got all the attention in presentations
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`The effort moved forward, anyway. Deep within IBM’s DNA was the eternal belief that the multiplication of electronic gadgets—cell phones or
`PCs—would fuel demand for big, powerful mainframe computers. Jim Cannavino, then a senior vice president responsible for IBM’s Personal
`Systems division, recalls telling the board: “Whether you want to build them or not (cell phones), you really want them to happen. That was the
`air cover to get Simon out the door.”
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`Canova has a video taken by one of the Simoneers as they’re setting up in Las Vegas before Comdex opens. The narrator approaches the
`mustachioed engineer as he’s intently working on the prototype. Then in his early 30s, Canova is wearing a white, short-sleeved shirt. He
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`seems genuinely surprised as he reports that everything is working smoothly. There’s a hint of pride when he says colleagues like the device.
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`Later, Canova walked out into the cool Las Vegas night to call Gary Wisgo, the project’s engineering manager. Wisgo had booked too late to get a
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`hotel room anywhere near the convention center. “Here I was, talking to someone with access to my calendar, e-mail, and much more, with
`only a phone in my hand. For the first time, no computer was needed,” recalls Canova. “That simple moment is when I realized the world was
`about to change.”
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`When the show opened the next day, Canova and the other engineers demonstrating the product were swamped. The prototype was a hit.
`Wisgo remembers awakening to a ringing phone at 6 a.m. An excited engineer was calling to tell him the project had made the front page of
`USA Today’s Money section, with a photo of Canova holding the prototype. The positive reaction convinced IBM’s senor management to build
`a real product. It helped that BellSouth wanted in on the action. IBM pumped money into the effort and the team grew from five engineers to
`32. This was one of the rare parts of IBM that was hiring.
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`The timing was perfect for Jim Thorpe, senior vice president of marketing for BellSouth Cellular, whose boss wanted to know what they could
`do to differentiate the company. Thorpe had set up a research and development lab, run by Dan Norman, to devise innovative products. It was
`BellSouth that came up with the name Simon, following an internal debate over whether the phone should have a science fiction-sounding
`name (Merlin and Wizard were suggestions.) Others wanted something easy to remember that would evoke simplicity. One of the marketing
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`managers had seen his kids play with the popular electronic memory game, Simon, which asked you to repeat a series of tones that got
`progressively more difficult in order to win. He suggested Simon, as in “Simon says simplicity.” An ad campaign was born.
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`The Simon Personal Communicator had its coming-out party on Nov. 2, 1993, at a telecommunications trade show at Disney World in Orlando.
`Before an audience of 150 analysts and journalists, Norman and Rich Guidotti, a product development manager, did their interpretation of
`Alexander Graham Bell’s celebrated moment. On stage, Norman sent Guidotti a fax: “Rich, Simon looks great. Dan.” Thorpe has the fax framed
`in his house, along with the stylus Norman used.
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`To promote Simon at trade shows and to distributors, Bellsouth made a video. Norman says the company was concerned customers would
`think Simon was too complicated because it could do so much. (This was right after Apple’s Newton bombed.) They hired an actress to have a
`little fun with Simon, playing a character named Christy. She is shown in situations you might not think to use Simon, but could: Send a fax
`while on a picnic, or check e-mail at the opera. As the video progresses, Christy starts making outrageous claims such as, “It’ll wash your car,”
`and “You can talk to aliens.” Norman appears in the video as the voice of reason, denying you can do those things. The video even veers into
`late-night infomercial territory: “What would you expect to pay for a machine that does all this, $5,000, $10,000, or more? How about under
`$1,000?”
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`The video drummed up interest, but Simon wasn’t ready for its scheduled release in May 1994. Customers couldn’t get one until Aug. 16. IBM
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`was still wrestling with the device’s short battery life. Its engineers reworked some software, but the ultimate solution was to provide a second
`battery, as a lot of video cameras did at the time. That was just one issue. Consumers were then enthralled by the popular, less expensive, $500
`flip cell phones. They were small and cool. (And they looked much more like those communicators on Star Trek.)
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`Norman, who has one of the original Simon prototypes from Comdex, conceived what would have been a first for the cellular industry-
`activating a cell phone “wirelessly over the air.” (AT&T now holds the patent.) At the time, cell phones had to be programmed at the store. It
`was a laborious, manual process that could take two hours. Norman planned to include with every Simon the software that would let BellSouth
`handle everything. Simon was off the market before the feature was ready. “That was actually a bigger deal than anything else that Simon was
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`capable of doing,” he says.
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`Before |Phone and Android Came Simon, the First Smartphone - Bloom berg
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`There was a second generation of Simon, code named Neon—thinner and shorter—that also didn’t make it out. The design, sans fax, was to be
`closer in shape to the eventual iPhone. IBM even made a logo for Neon with the name running both vertically and horizontally around the
`letter 0; it would say Neon, no matter how it was held. “We actually rotated the screen like the iPhone,” says Canova.
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`By now, IBM was closing plants and offices around the world. The company moved PC operations out of Florida, sending the Simon design
`work to Raleigh, N.C. Many Simon engineers didn’t want to move north, so they left. Canova eventually departed after trying to work with the
`team in Raleigh.
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`Merckel, now a professor of engineering at the University of North Florida, had more features in the works, too, including a card that would
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`turn the phone into a radio. He also tried to convince Advanced Micro Devices to supply the chip for future products. Those efforts went
`nowhere. “I threw it in the trash,” he says of the working prototype for the radio. “IBM was disappearing.”
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`By early 1995, Simon was off the market. IBM decided not to pursue the business. Bellsouth put money into improving its own
`communications network.
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`Today, Bellsouth executives say Simon was worthwhile. Tech companies began to think about how they could use cellular technology in their
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`products. Bellsouth received recognition and attracted partners such as Microsoft, which had never before called on their company.
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`For Mugge, the lesson of Simon is a familiar tale for many pioneers: “Don’t invent one of these things before they invent the Internet or fiber
`optics with tremendous bandwidth.”
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`Before |Phone and Android Came Simon, the First Smartphone - Bloom berg
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`Before |Phone and Android Came Simon, the First Smartphone - Bloom berg
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`Before |Phone and Android Came Simon, the First Smartphone - Bloom berg
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