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Comment on IBM Simon (1994): the original smartphone, explained in its own ad [video]parent

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how many false starts we had

I did a double-take at that.

False starts? The Palm? Blackberry?

These things sold in the tens of millions and I saw them everywhere. I'm a Brit: I used a Psion. My PDA didn't sync with my desktop; I didn't do that stuff on the desktop, I did it in a better, far more reliable computer in my pocket.

As Palms caught on, I blew the owners' minds by IRDA zapping them contact details.

The point being that there was a time everyone with an office corporate job carried them.

To a lesser extent, Nokia, WinCE, Sony-Ericsson etc. Those gadgets sold in vast numbers, too.

I mean, yes, compared to the modern smartphone industry, which is 10-100x the size of the entire PC industry including servers...

But "false starts"? $ multi-billion companies with household-name products?

I would be extraordinarily happy with a "false start" such as that!

It strikes me as like saying bicycles were a false start because more people do more miles in cars.

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