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Comment by jdmichal | Hacker News Reader

> It’s getting hard to remember, but a decade ago — before iPhone — all our mobiles were dumbphones. We’d use them to call or text and perhaps play the occasional game of snake. But that’s it. That’s all we could do.

Tell that to my HTC Wizard / Cingular 8125 [0], released almost two years before the iPhone. The term "smartphone" was already in use before the iPhone also [1]. I don't mean to downplay the arrival of the iPhone; it did a lot to advance the state of the art. But to say that these things just flat out didn't exist before the iPhone is grossly wrong.

For those who want to know, this is how history is rewritten.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTC_Wizard

[1] https://www.engadget.com/2006/02/21/review-cingular-8125/

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They weren't great phones, and the iPhone definitely did a lot to push UI/UX forward, but the iPhone was most definitely not the first smart phone.

I'd argue that the Blackberry was the first practical smartphone, released in: 2003. I remember being blown away by the Wizard before the iPhone was a rumor.

Edit: Changed year from 1999 to 2003, 1999 was the 2-way pager, 2003 was the first device that resembled a smartphone.

> 2003 was the first device that resembled a smartphone.

I had a Handspring Visor when they were first released (around 2000), and while it was just a PDA on its own, there was a phone module that slid into the back, making it a smartphone. After that, I had almost all of the Treo's starting around 2002, which (what I think) were the first all-in-one smartphones.

And then there was the Nokia Communicator from 1996.

I was going to bring up the iPaq line of Windows PDAs and phones beginning in '99, but you already preceded me by 3 years with that Nokia play.

That's just lazy on behalf of the author, it's not like anyone is pushing any narrative. Even Jobs in the original iPhone keynote gave a rundown of the current state of smartphones which definitely did exist then.

I think you're misinterpreting that sentence. He's not saying all mobiles were dumbphones right before iPhone. Rather, "a decade ago — before <a well known event that happened _after_ smartphones existed> — all our mobiles were dumbphones."

Had a wizard and a Tytn, terminology aside, they were completely products than the iPhone. 'Smart phones' prior to the iPhone were really just mobile MS exchange connectors, the web browser was unusable and there were few if any lifestyle apps. The iPhone really was the first of it's bread.

I had planty of Symbian apps on my Noka 6600. There was a booming J2ME game business as well.

I could play chess, surf the web, or take pictures on my flip phone 12 ish years ago. IMO, it was good enough to think something great was (coming soon TM), but it was still a long way from a smartphone.

I bought an 8125 back in the day, so I could go into small comm closets and work on equipment with out having to drag in a laptop. I powered it up a little over a year ago to pull some stuff off it, then after I was done with doing that, the USB port broke...

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