[quandrum]

Just bad reading. Despite what you think this article says, it clearly acknowledges smart phones existed before 2007.

The source article is claiming 2002 as first availability, when Palm's and their ilk gained the ability to make phone calls.

Then it claims it took ~8 years to reach 10% saturation, and then another ~2 1/2 to reach 40% saturation.

I don't think you can call the first cell capable palm pilots the first smartphone, but that's where the article starts.

[degusta]

I wrote the underlying article - thanks for catching that I wasn't using 2007/iPhone as the timeline base.

The 2002 date was when I was saying smart phones reached general consumer availability, not when the very first one was invented. As I mention in the article, it was 2002 when Blackberry phones and Microsoft Pocket PC phones came out, as well as the aforementioned Palm-based Treos.

FWIW, here's the source article: http://www.technologyreview.com/business/40321/ And the HN discussion thread (empty, just submitted it) for it: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3951352