Prototype Model PDQ-1900 Smart Phone

Until the late 20th century telephones, computers and televisions operated in largely separate realms. Sometimes those realms intersected, as when computers or television signals were transmitted over telephone wires, but users generally operated separate, highly specialized devices for each. In the 1990s, however, these realms began to converge. This prototype PDQ-1900 smartphone shows the convergence of telephone and computer technologies in one unit. Cellular telephones entered the market in the 1980s and by late ‘90s many Americans owned one. At the same time small, handheld computers called personal digital assistants were also introduced by several makers. Palm Inc. made one popular line of PDAs and in 1999 Qualcomm combined the functions of a Palm PDA with a cell phone in this PDQ-1900 into a device that came to be known as a “smartphone.” Later, more powerful smartphones added a vast array of features–including the capability of receiving television programs erasing the lines that used to exist between these separate technologies.