Nokia 9000 Communicator Turns 30: The Pioneering Smartphone That Nokia Let Slip
Thirty years after the Nokia 9000 Communicator launched, TechRadar looks back at the device that combined email, fax, web browsing and calls in one pocketable gadget – and how Nokia failed to build on its lead.
The device looked like a chunky 1990s mobile phone from the outside, but opened to reveal a QWERTY keyboard and a grayscale LCD screen. Its specs included a 4.5-inch 640x200 pixel display, an Intel 386 processor, 8MB of memory (2MB for user storage, 2MB for programs, and 4MB for the operating system), and more than 1,000 components – compared to the 100-150 typical for phones at the time.
Contemporary reviews praised its ambition. Personal Computer World's June 1996 first-impressions review called it "the most exciting 397g we've seen for ages," noting its combination of PDA, email, fax, and internet browsing. The Independent, however, reported that the Communicator behaved "rather poorly when accessing live pages," possibly due to network or web issues. The device's apps focused on telephone, fax, SMS, email, and web, and it included a rudimentary word processor, calendar, calculator, world clock, and even a ringtone composer.
The Communicator was aimed at business users on the move, and it was even featured in the 1997 film "The Saint" with Val Kilmer. Four Communicator models eventually launched, ending with the Nokia 9210i in 2002, which added a color screen and 40MB of internal memory.
Despite its innovation, the Communicator did not change the world the way the iPhone did. Nokia's CEO at the time, Jorma Ollila, later told The Wall Street Journal: "We had exactly the right view of what it was all about. We were about five years ahead." The retrospective highlights how Nokia ultimately failed to capitalize on its early smartphone lead.