News Summary

• On the other hand, it was still too large and was basically treated (and judged) as a PC, and even though its handwriting recognition was better than the Newton’s, it was still outsold four to one.
• PalmPrint became GridPen, the core of the 1989 GriDPad 1900, or what we would call today the first commercially successful tablet computer.
• But arguably no style of gadget has been so thoroughly superseded as the personal digital assistant, the handheld computer that dominated the late '90s and early 2000s.
• Jeff Hawkins, then vice president of research at portable systems builder GRiD, thought he could do better.
• Still, the Zoomer got to market in October 1993 at a pound in weight (less than half a kilogram) and for $599 ($1,240 in 2024), markedly undercutting Apple’s Newton MessagePad.
• Naturally, there’s no way we could enumerate every single such device in this article.