0Kyocera
6035
Announced
January 2001
Weight
208 grams
Features
The Kyocera 6035 (model number: QCP-6035) was one of the first smartphones to appear in the American market when it was released in January 2001. It was a pioneering device released before the term "smartphone" was widely used and was one of the first devices to combine a PDA with a mobile phone. Its predecessor, the Qualcomm pdQ, which was released in 1999, is regularly cited as one of the first smartphones. The pdQ was built by Qualcomm's handset division, which Kyocera acquired in 2000.
The phone was initially designed specifically for the US market and supported on the Sprint PCS and Verizon Wireless CDMA networks. Verizon announced it would be ranging the device in March 2001, and Sprint followed in April 2001. It was later offered in Canada via the Bell Mobility network. The device in the museum collection is a Sprint-branded variant. It was one of the first phones to offer unlimited internet access, which was a significant selling point.
The 6035 was a keyboard flip phone with a similar design to the Sony Ericsson P800, which was launched a year after the 6035. This provided the user with a numeric keypad which covered a touchscreen display with PDA functionality. The phone had a dual-software architecture, with the cellular phone firmware operated independently from the Palm OS platform. This meant the phone could be used for calls even when the Palm OS was not running. The opposite use case was also supported with the Palm OS-powered PDA, which was available even if the phone function was not enabled. However, the two platforms could also work together, allowing messages to be passed from the PDA to the phone system, for example, when sending a text message or email or browsing the Internet. Interestingly, the phone's settings were configured through the Palm OS interface.
Other notable features included were an infrared port for connecting to other infrared-enabled devices and a three-way scroll wheel for navigating up and down and pushing in to make a selection.
The phone also had four physical buttons behind the keypad flip and below the touchscreen. This comprised a text search for contacts, a ringer volume control, a message access button, and a speakerphone switch.
In 2001, it won several awards, including the CDMA Development Group's 3G Industry Achievement Award for Subscriber Technology and the MobileFocus Award in the mobile phone category at the PC Expo show.
