Everything You Need to be Mobile Quick facts Introduction While many of the PDA manufacturers of the 1990s and later had a background in making personal computers, Sharp had a different heritage. A long-time expert in display technology and power-efficient electronics, Sharp was one of the early companies to introduce calculators and so-called data banks. … Read more
The small details make all the difference Quick facts Introduction When Microsoft introduced Windows CE 1.0 in 1996, many manufacturers wanted to join the new platform—especially traditional PC makers. One of the dominant companies at the time was Compaq, so it was only natural for them to enter this emerging market. However, Microsoft imposed strict … Read more
What a tablet would look like in 1993 Quick facts Overview Before the arrival of the PalmPilot, Palm Computing was a software company. It developed the Graffiti handwriting recognition system and licensed it to various hardware manufacturers. One of these was Grid Systems, which used it in its GridPad line of handheld computers. The GridPad … Read more
An updated Mobile Companion Quick facts Overview Undeterred by the limited commercial success of its first foray into the PDA market with the MC12, Ericsson decided to follow Hewlett-Packard’s lead once again. When HP released the upgraded 360LX, Ericsson followed suit with a rebranded version: the Ericsson MC16. The “MC” designation stood for Mobile Companion, … Read more
Quick facts BlackBerry 7290 The BlackBerry 7290, or more correctly the RIM BlackBerry 7290, is a GSM mobile phone released in 2004 by the Canadian company Research In Motion (RIM). It was neither the first nor the last device from RIM. In fact, the company had already introduced its first messaging product in 1999. However, … Read more
The Unifier Quick facts Overview Siemens IC35 – The Unifier Introduction In the year 2000, Siemens introduced a small PDA with a physical keyboard called the IC35. It was positioned as a companion device to a Siemens mobile phone. At the time, Siemens was one of the three major European manufacturers of mobile network equipment, … Read more
A multimedia device in your pocket Quick facts Overview The iPAQ rx3115, introduced by HP in late 2004, is a PDA from the closing years of the PDA era. Smartphones already existed at this point, but had not yet become mainstream, and the iPhone was still several years away. The rx3115 runs the then-popular Microsoft … Read more
A hint of things to come Quick facts Introduction Sony, one of the largest companies in the consumer electronics industry, naturally wanted a share of the rapidly growing PDA market. By the late 1990s the market had expanded significantly, not least thanks to Palm and its highly successful PalmOS-powered devices. Sony had experimented with handheld … Read more
All-in-one affordable PDA, turn-by-turn navigator and media player Quick facts Overview A PDA born from the navigation boom By the mid-2000s, the PDA market was already in decline, squeezed between increasingly capable smartphones and dedicated in-car navigation units. Manufacturers that traditionally built GPS devices saw an opportunity to combine both worlds — and Microsoft’s Windows … Read more
An attempt to spark new life into the PDA Quick facts Overview What do you get when you take the ideas and general physical construction of the Psion Series 5mx from the late 1990s and combine them with modern (circa 2020) hardware and software? The answer is the Cosmo Communicator — a mobile phone with … Read more