The ad doesn't show me how the device works, there's just a person talking and making promises. I guess the device's resolution and contrast are so low and it looks a bit underwhelming in general that they didn't go with that first...
The display was really impressive for the era, resistive touch, backlit etc.; this is two years before the Palm Pilot launched.
Most people would not have thought "underwhelming", and displays no better than that were commonplace in really popular devices for the next five years, including in the Palm V and Vx, which were luxury devices really.
The problem these early smartphones had with their audience was size, weight and price.
That, and lack of precedent. Devices like this that launched after people started seeing Palm Pilots everywhere had an easier time. That, I think, is why it is sold the way it is in this ad.
It's interesting how many false starts we had before the smartphone became ubiquitous. We had the Simon, Palm, then Nokia and Sony-Ericsson both with Symbian and different UI layers, WAP, various Windows CE devices, Blackberry pager descendants, and I probably missed a lot of them.
Psion is the big one - the Organiser, Series 3 and Series 5 in particular. The latter was the genesis of Symbian, which Motorola was also a partner in.
It was really the touch screen UI, which was brought to market by Apple. Always been curious if it was developed there or if like the desktop windowed UI it was pioneered elsewhere.
Prior efforts were menu oriented or attempts at desktop UI on a tiny screen, like WinCE.
Isn't it interesting that some companies like IBM and Siemens completely lost the ability or will to produce end user products? (Before you answer that your kitchen appliance is from Siemens, let me tell you it is not. It's from Bosch who put a Siemens sticker on it).
I love the pace of the commercial btw, which could also have been done by Vsauce.
Most people would not have thought "underwhelming", and displays no better than that were commonplace in really popular devices for the next five years, including in the Palm V and Vx, which were luxury devices really.
The problem these early smartphones had with their audience was size, weight and price.
That, and lack of precedent. Devices like this that launched after people started seeing Palm Pilots everywhere had an easier time. That, I think, is why it is sold the way it is in this ad.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-mode
At 80M subscribers, it was probably the most popular way in the world to access mobile internet pre-iPhone.
I-mode also introduced the original set of emojis that are now supported everywhere.
Psion is the big one - the Organiser, Series 3 and Series 5 in particular. The latter was the genesis of Symbian, which Motorola was also a partner in.
Prior efforts were menu oriented or attempts at desktop UI on a tiny screen, like WinCE.
https://youtu.be/lkg4EAK0Y30
I love stuff like this. There's a great episode of the 90s PBS show Computer Chronicles with a ton of these:
https://computerchronicles.tv/#episode/1103
(Though at the time of this comment the Internet Archive seems to be down so if the video doesn't load, that's why.)
I love the pace of the commercial btw, which could also have been done by Vsauce.