The technological optimism of the 1990s was truly contagious. Many companies did not hesitate to share revolutionary and extravagant designs with the public under the promise of bringing the future, today, and one of them was Panasonic. At the Summer CES of 1993, the Japanese giant presented the Panasonic KX-T9900, a hybrid between a watch, a bracelet, and a cordless phone. The idea of always being connected had its appeal back then, but despite its striking format, the KX-T9900 was not a mobile phone…
Few things captured people's imagination like the communicators from Dick Tracy and Star Trek. Ending the “tyranny” of landline phones (no matter how remarkable their designs were) became the dream of many, and technology finally achieved that goal… but not without some stumbles. The simple miniaturization of the phone was a gigantic challenge, and the overall format could not lag behind. That said, let's travel 26 years into the past, landing at the Summer CES of 1993. Panasonic was there, and one of the things it shared was this:
I must apologize for the poor resolution of the images, but this is all we have about the Panasonic KX-T9900, a wristwatch that also worked as a phone. The KX-T9900 did not need additional accessories: speaker, microphone, keyboard, and LCD screen were already integrated. Its internal memory could store up to 10 numbers with 16 digits, and it also included a redial function to speed up calls.
Now, the Panasonic KX-T9900 was a portable cordless phone, but that did not make it qualify as 'mobile'. Its entire operation depended on a base connected to the telephone line. This base had the advantage of supporting up to four phones at once, thus enabling an intercom role for them. Its operating frequency was 900 megahertz; however, the range of the KX-T9900 left much to be desired. With a maximum limit of 46 meters, taking it out of the house was a waste of time.
At the time, the company announced that the Panasonic KX-T9900 would go on sale in October 1993 at a price of $999, almost $1,800 adjusted for inflation. The problem is that we cannot confirm its launch. The few available images are press photos with terrible resolution, while the rest of the information is contradictory. For example, Popular Science in its September 1993 edition says that the KX-T9900 effectively works as a watch, but Popular Mechanics from the same month and year indicates that it could not even tell time. In short, a very, very strange beast.
https://old.neoteo.com/picturephone-videollamadas-en-1970-video/
