5. Nokia 1011
The Nokia 1011 was the very first commercial cell phone produced by Nokia and it was also the world’s first mass-produced GSM cell phone. By the standards of the time period, the Nokia 1011 was pretty compact and could fit into pockets and purses.
Additionally, this was the first commercial cell phone that could send and receive text messages, kicking off Nokia’s dominance in cell phone market over the next few years.
Following the release of the Nokia 1011, Nokia decided to almost exclusively focus on developing GSM phones, while its rival Motorola continued with analog.
6. IBM Simon
A year before the term “smartphone” was coined (because of this phone’s capabilities) and decades before they became a common personal item, the IBM Simon made its debut in 1994 as the world’s very first smartphone.
The IBM Simon was a touchscreen PDA (personal digital assistant) designed by IBM and manufactured by Mitsubishi Electric. It was distributed by BellSouth Cellular Corp. for $899 with a two-year service plan or $1,099 without a contract.
The prototype for the IBM Simon was revealed in 1992 and the company spent the next two years developing a commercial model. In addition to making and receiving cellular phone calls, the IBM Simon could send and receive faxes, e-mails, and cellular pages.
The phone also featured an address book, calendar, appointment scheduler, calculator, world time clock, electronic notepad, handwritten annotations, and standard and predictive stylus input screen keyboards.
