[pavlov]

Indeed.

The first commercial smartphone was introduced in 1996: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_9000_Communicator

The Ericsson R380 from the year 2000 was the first to look more like a modern smartphone with a full-front touchscreen: http://www.gsmarena.com/ericsson_r380-195.php

[RichClaxton]

I actually worked on the 9000 Communicator when I worked for Geoworks in the UK, many moons ago.

We also worked on the Seiko Epson locatio, phone with PDA browser and GPS all in 1998, http://www.knorbury.co.uk/locatio.gif

[diminish]

totally agree about the misguiding article. When you compare to the first 2billion mobile phones, smartphones may even be seen as slower, given there is a strict definition for what a smartphone is.