The person most widely credited with inventing the first modern smartphone is IBM engineer Frank J. Canova, who led the design of the IBM Simon Personal Communicator in the early 1990s.

Quick Scoop: Who Invented the Smartphone?

When people ask “who invented the smartphone,” they usually mean the first device that looked and behaved like today’s phones: a mobile phone plus PDA- style features like email, touchscreen, and apps. That “first smartphone” is generally accepted to be the IBM Simon Personal Communicator, created under the leadership of Frank Canova.

  • IBM Simon was demonstrated as a prototype in 1992 and went on sale in 1994.
  • It combined a mobile phone with a touchscreen, email, calendar, notes, and other built-in apps, which is why it is retroactively called the first smartphone.
  • USA Today even featured Canova holding the early prototype, with IBM referring to him as the smartphone’s inventor.

So Who Gets the Credit?

There is no single universally agreed “inventor of the smartphone,” but tech historians and museums consistently point to Frank Canova and the IBM Simon project.

  • Frank J. Canova (IBM) – Lead architect of the Simon, described in IBM and historical documentation as the inventor of the smartphone.
  • IBM Simon team – A small group of engineers in IBM’s Advanced Technology group in Boca Raton, Florida, built the device that is now widely recognized as the first smartphone.
  • IBM as a company – Often credited in news and industry articles as the creator of the first smartphone for bringing Simon to market.

At the same time, other pioneers shaped the broader story:

  • Martin Cooper (Motorola) – Known as the “father of the cell phone” for the first handheld cellular phone and first public mobile call in 1973, laying the groundwork for smartphones.
  • Ericsson, Nokia, and others – Popularized and refined the “smartphone” concept in the late 1990s and 2000s with devices like Ericsson’s GS88 (one of the first to use the word “smartphone” in marketing).

A Bit of Timeline Context

To understand “who invented the smartphone,” it helps to see where Simon fits into the bigger picture.

  • 1973: Motorola engineer Martin Cooper makes the first public call on a handheld mobile phone, the DynaTAC prototype.
  • 1992: IBM shows its prototype “Sweetspot” (later “Angler”), which becomes the Simon Personal Communicator, at the COMDEX trade show.
  • 1994: IBM Simon goes on sale; it can make calls, send/receive email, manage contacts and calendar, and run simple apps on a touchscreen.
  • 1995–1997: The term “smart phone” starts appearing in marketing; Ericsson’s GS88 in 1997 is one of the first devices actually branded as a “smartphone.”

So, while many companies evolved the smartphone into what it is today, the answer to “who invented the smartphone” in the sense of the first true smartphone device is:

Frank J. Canova and the IBM team that created the IBM Simon Personal Communicator in the early 1990s.

TL;DR:

  • First widely recognized smartphone: IBM Simon Personal Communicator (prototype 1992, released 1994).
  • Key person behind it: Frank J. Canova , IBM engineer and lead architect, often directly called the inventor of the smartphone.
  • Many others (like Martin Cooper for the cell phone itself) contributed to the long road that made modern smartphones possible.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.