In the paper counterexamples to the Kalman conjecture with smooth nonlinearity basing on the Fitts system, that are periodic solution or hidden chaotic attractor are presented. It is shown, that despite the fact that Kalman’s conjecture (as well as Aizerman’s) turned out to be incorrect in the case of n > 3, it had a huge impact on the theory of absolute stability, namely, the selection of the class of nonlinear systems whose stability can be studied with linear methods.