The term personal communicator has been used with several meanings. Around 1990 the next generation digital mobile phones were called digital personal communicators. Another definition, coined in 1991, is for a
category of handheld device

Handheld device

A mobile device is a small, hand-held computing device, typically having a display screen with touch input and/or a miniature keyboard and less than . Early pocket sized ones were joined in the late 2000s by larger but otherwise similar tablet computers...

s that provide personal information manager

Personal information manager

A personal information manager is a type of application software that functions as a personal organizer. The acronym PIM is now, more commonly, used in reference to Personal information management as a field of study...

 functions and packet switched wireless

Wireless network

Wireless network refers to any type of computer network that is not connected by cables of any kind. It is a method by which homes, telecommunications networks and enterprise installations avoid the costly process of introducing cables into a building, or as a connection between various equipment...

 data communications capabilities over wireless wide area networks such as cellular network

Cellular network

A cellular network is a radio network distributed over land areas called cells, each served by at least one fixed-location transceiver known as a cell site or base station. When joined together these cells provide radio coverage over a wide geographic area...

s. These devices are now commonly referred to as smartphones or wireless PDA's.

Due to Nokia Communicator

Nokia Communicator

The Nokia Communicator is a brand name for a series of business-optimized smartphones marketed by Nokia Corporation, all of which appear as normal phones on the outside, and open in clamshell format to access a QWERTY keyboard and an LCD screen nearly the size of the device footprint.Nokia...

 devices the term "communicator" is used now for hi-end smartphones (with a touch display or a QWERTY keyboard) as well as PDAs with mobile phone functionality.

See also

• AT&T EO Personal Communicator, 1993
  EO Personal Communicator
  The EO was an early commercial tablet computer created by GO/Eo and released in April 1993. Eo was the hardware spin-out of GO. Officially named the AT&T EO Personal Communicator, it was similar to a large personal digital assistant with wireless communications, and competed against the Apple...
  
  
• IBM Simon Personal Communicator, 1994
  IBM Simon
  The IBM Simon Personal Communicator was an advanced cellular telephone, created by a joint venture between IBM and BellSouth. Simon was first shown as a product concept in 1992 at COMDEX, the computer and technology trade show held in Las Vegas, Nevada. Launched in 1993 it combined the features of...
  
  
• Wireless PDA
  Personal digital assistant
  A personal digital assistant , also known as a palmtop computer, or personal data assistant, is a mobile device that functions as a personal information manager. Current PDAs often have the ability to connect to the Internet...
  
  
• Smartphone
  Smartphone
  A smartphone is a high-end mobile phone built on a mobile computing platform, with more advanced computing ability and connectivity than a contemporary feature phone. The first smartphones were devices that mainly combined the functions of a personal digital assistant and a mobile phone or camera...
  
  

External links

• Concept genesis, Aug 1991
• The Executive Computer; 'Mother of All Markets' or a 'Pipe Dream Driven by Greed'? NYT, July 1992
• EO Inc. Describes 'Personal Communicator' Devices, New York Times,1992
• Motorola expands family of personal communicator products, Mobile Phone News,1993
• Bellsouth, IBM unveil personal communicator phone, Mobile Phone News,1993
• The EO 440 And EO 880 Paradigms For Personal Communicators, Mobile Computing,1993
• The Return of the PDA, Marketing Computers,1995