Long before Steve Jobs took the stage, IBM released the Simon Personal Communicator in 1994 — considered the first real smartphone. It could make calls, send emails, store contacts, manage calendars, and even run early apps like a sketch pad and calculator.

Weighing nearly 500 grams and costing $899 (over $1,500 today), Simon was ahead of its time. It had a monochrome LCD touchscreen and used a stylus — no swiping yet. But despite its innovative features, it flopped commercially. Only about 50,000 units were sold.

Still, Simon laid the groundwork for modern mobile devices. It combined PDA functionality with cellular calling, paving the way for BlackBerry, Palm, and eventually the iPhone.

In tech history, Simon is the unsung hero of mobile innovation — clunky, expensive, but revolutionary.