{"id":88,"date":"2025-07-12T22:18:42","date_gmt":"2025-07-12T22:18:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/odinsmartphone.com\/?page_id=88"},"modified":"2025-07-12T22:18:43","modified_gmt":"2025-07-12T22:18:43","slug":"odin-smartphone-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/odinsmartphone.com\/?page_id=88","title":{"rendered":"Odin Smartphone"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
The Odin Smartphone: A Forgotten First<\/summary>\n

In the year 2000, long before the iPhone or Android, a pioneering team at Motorola and Psion quietly built the world\u2019s first modern smartphone. Called Odin<\/strong>, it featured a full-colour touchscreen, mobile apps, email, downloadable content, voice control, and \u2014 for the first time ever \u2014 Airplane Mode<\/strong>. It even included location-based services<\/strong>, wireless syncing (SyncML<\/strong>), and early concepts of cloud computing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s remarkable is not just what Odin could do \u2014 but when it did it. This was seven years before the iPhone<\/strong>, at a time when most mobile phones were still monochrome and had no internet. The Odin Smartphone changed everything \u2014 but was never released. Until now, its story was lost to history

<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Odin Smartphone developed in 2000 pioneered many features later found on the iPhone in 2007, including touchscreen, apps, Airplane Mode, and cloud syncing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

History Forgot the World’s First Smartphone, but the Notes Survived.

Odin Smartphone in 2000 Vanished Before the World Was Ready.<\/summary>\n

<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n

\n

In 2000, before iPhone, before Android, before app stores and GPS, a team at Psion and Motorola quietly built the future \u2014 and called it the Odin Smartphone<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  • The first full-screen colour portrait touchscreen smartphone<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • The first with downloadable native apps<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Among the earliest with location-based services<\/strong>, internet<\/strong>, and wireless sync<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • The first use of the term Airplane Mode<\/strong>, as recorded by Merriam-Webster<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • All led by one man: Rob Lowe<\/strong>, Odin\u2019s Engineering Lead & Programme Director<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    This is not a tribute.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    This is a correction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n\n\n\n

    \ud83e\udde0 Designed to Replace Everything<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
    \n

    Phone. PDA. Laptop. Pager. Modem. Game console.
    Odin fused them all \u2014 in a form factor that looks identical to the smartphones we use today.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

    But this wasn\u2019t from 2007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The Evidence Was Never Lost. Just Unseen.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
      \n
    • \ud83d\udcd2 115 pages of handwritten invention notes<\/strong> now held at Bletchley Park<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • \ud83e\uddfe Verified authorship by Psion\u2019s Director<\/strong>, and Motorola’s internal records<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • \ud83d\udccd Technology inside Odin licensed to Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and more \u2014 shipping in over 500 million smartphones<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • \u270d\ufe0f Not just an idea. A built, tested, scheduled and managed engineering programme<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
      \n\n\n\n

      \ud83d\udc64 \u201cWho Invented the Smartphone?\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

      Who Started the Smartphone Era?<\/strong>
      Not Apple. Not Google.
      A Man Named Rob Lowe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      The Internet Rarely Says Rob Lowe – now it will.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Here is Rob delivering the Odin Smartphone Notes to Bletchley Park<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
      \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

      Rob Lowe hands over the Odin Smartphone d<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      The Odin Smartphone developed in 2000 pioneered many features later found on the iPhone in 2007, including touchscreen, apps, Airplane Mode, and cloud syncing. In 2000, before iPhone, before Android, before app stores and GPS, a team at Psion and Motorola quietly built the future \u2014 and called it the Odin Smartphone. This is not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-88","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"\nOdin Smartphone - Odin Smartphone<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/odinsmartphone.com\/?page_id=88\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Odin Smartphone - Odin Smartphone\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Odin Smartphone developed in 2000 pioneered many features later found on the iPhone in 2007, including touchscreen, apps, Airplane Mode, and cloud syncing. In 2000, before iPhone, before Android, before app stores and GPS, a team at Psion and Motorola quietly built the future \u2014 and called it the Odin Smartphone. This is not […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/odinsmartphone.com\/?page_id=88\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Odin Smartphone\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-07-12T22:18:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/odinsmartphone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/2025-07-12-Odin-Smartphone-Functions-1.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"533\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"306\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/odinsmartphone.com\/?page_id=88\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/odinsmartphone.com\/?page_id=88\",\"name\":\"Odin Smartphone - Odin Smartphone\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/odinsmartphone.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/odinsmartphone.com\/?page_id=88#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/odinsmartphone.com\/?page_id=88#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/odinsmartphone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/2025-07-12-Odin-Smartphone-Functions-1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-07-12T22:18:42+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-07-12T22:18:43+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/odinsmartphone.com\/?page_id=88#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/odinsmartphone.com\/?page_id=88\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/odinsmartphone.com\/?page_id=88#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/odinsmartphone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/2025-07-12-Odin-Smartphone-Functions-1.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/odinsmartphone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/2025-07-12-Odin-Smartphone-Functions-1.webp\",\"width\":533,\"height\":306},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/odinsmartphone.com\/?page_id=88#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/odinsmartphone.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Odin Smartphone\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/odinsmartphone.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/odinsmartphone.com\/\",\"name\":\"Odin Smartphone\",\"description\":\"Explanation of how the Odin Smartphone became the world's first modern smartphone\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/odinsmartphone.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/odinsmartphone.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/odinsmartphone.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Odin Smartphone\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/odinsmartphone.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/odinsmartphone.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/odinsmartphone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/2025-09-02-Odin-Logo-with-First-Modern-Smartphone-Wording.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/odinsmartphone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/2025-09-02-Odin-Logo-with-First-Modern-Smartphone-Wording.jpg\",\"width\":1120,\"height\":632,\"caption\":\"Odin Smartphone\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/odinsmartphone.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Odin Smartphone - Odin Smartphone","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/odinsmartphone.com\/?page_id=88","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Odin Smartphone - Odin Smartphone","og_description":"The Odin Smartphone developed in 2000 pioneered many features later found on the iPhone in 2007, including touchscreen, apps, Airplane Mode, and cloud syncing. In 2000, before iPhone, before Android, before app stores and GPS, a team at Psion and Motorola quietly built the future \u2014 and called it the Odin Smartphone. This is not […]","og_url":"https:\/\/odinsmartphone.com\/?page_id=88","og_site_name":"Odin Smartphone","article_modified_time":"2025-07-12T22:18:43+00:00","og_image":[{"width":533,"height":306,"url":"https:\/\/odinsmartphone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/2025-07-12-Odin-Smartphone-Functions-1.webp","type":"image\/webp"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Estimated reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/odinsmartphone.com\/?page_id=88","url":"https:\/\/odinsmartphone.com\/?page_id=88","name":"Odin Smartphone - Odin Smartphone","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/odinsmartphone.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/odinsmartphone.com\/?page_id=88#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/odinsmartphone.com\/?page_id=88#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/odinsmartphone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/2025-07-12-Odin-Smartphone-Functions-1.jpg","datePublished":"2025-07-12T22:18:42+00:00","dateModified":"2025-07-12T22:18:43+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/odinsmartphone.com\/?page_id=88#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/odinsmartphone.com\/?page_id=88"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/odinsmartphone.com\/?page_id=88#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/odinsmartphone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/2025-07-12-Odin-Smartphone-Functions-1.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/odinsmartphone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/2025-07-12-Odin-Smartphone-Functions-1.webp","width":533,"height":306},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/odinsmartphone.com\/?page_id=88#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/odinsmartphone.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Odin Smartphone"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/odinsmartphone.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/odinsmartphone.com\/","name":"Odin Smartphone","description":"Explanation of how the Odin Smartphone became the world's first modern smartphone","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/odinsmartphone.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/odinsmartphone.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/odinsmartphone.com\/#organization","name":"Odin Smartphone","url":"https:\/\/odinsmartphone.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/odinsmartphone.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/odinsmartphone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/2025-09-02-Odin-Logo-with-First-Modern-Smartphone-Wording.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/odinsmartphone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/2025-09-02-Odin-Logo-with-First-Modern-Smartphone-Wording.jpg","width":1120,"height":632,"caption":"Odin Smartphone"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/odinsmartphone.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/odinsmartphone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/88","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/odinsmartphone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/odinsmartphone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/odinsmartphone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/odinsmartphone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=88"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/odinsmartphone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/88\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":90,"href":"https:\/\/odinsmartphone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/88\/revisions\/90"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/odinsmartphone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=88"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}