14 DAY TRIAL // The IBM Simon is being credited as the first smartphone to go on sale in history in 1994, but people were imaging phones with kooky features long before this device made a debut into the real world.
It wasn't uncommon for people to imagine 2000 as the year when technology would culminate and we see this dogma applied even in science fiction writing.
For example, Robert A. Heinlein, author of the Future History and Lazarus Long series, imagined the year 2000 back in 1949 when he made some predictions for a magazine.
In one of those, he states that “your personal telephone will be small enough to carry in our handbag. Your house telephone will record messages, answer simple inquires and transmit vision.”
Heinlein gets most of the stuff right, except for the fact that these functions were made available for phones much later.
People from the '80s imagined the phone of the future
The fascination for the year 2000 continued to linger on in people’s minds well through the '80s. Back in 1981 a competition was held in Holland asking participants to design the “Phone from the year 2000” in order to celebrate 100 years of telephony (as seen at Imgur).
Contestants entering propositions into the contest had to belong in one of the three age groups, 13 to 15 years, 16 to 18 years or 19 to 25 years.
For each of these categories the prize was a nifty vacation to Cape Canaveral. As the competition came to an end, a selection of the best submissions was gathered in a book later released under the title “Hello, This Is the Future.”
You can check out some of the participating designs in the gallery below only to discover that back in 1981 people were dreaming about the technology we have today.
You’ll probably notice the watch-O-phone prototype, which was able to show time, had a calculator and a stopwatch. LG G Watch anyone?
In general, most contestants agreed that the phone of 2000 will be portable, wireless and will be light enough to be carried around as a personal device.
One of the weirdest concepts we find in this collection is the thumb phone. According to the designer, in 2000 a microphone will be embedded in the pink and a receiver in the thumb. The hand will also bare modifications to act as an antenna.
So users will have no need for dialing, as calling will be initiated by virtue of saying the number out loud. Seems quite reminiscent of what our virtual assistants can do for us. Also, a vibration in the thumb will let you know of any incoming calls.
