Personal Digital Assistant
Palm IIIxe PDA
Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) are handheld devices that were originally designed as personal organizers, but became much more versatile over the years. A basic PDA usually includes a clock, date book, address book, task list, memo pad and a simple calculator. One major advantage of using PDAs is their ability to synchronize data with desktop, notebook and desknote computers.
The term personal digital assistant was coined on 7 January 1992 by John Sculley at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada, referring to the Apple Newton.
The currently major PDA operating systems are: PalmSource's Palm OS, Pocket PC (Windows CE) from Microsoft, Research In Motion Linux, and Symbian OS (formerly EPOC)
According to a Gartner market study, the overall market has shrunk by 5% in Q1 2004 compared to Q1 2003, and the shares are:
- Palm OS - 40.7% (stable)
- Pocket PC - 40.2% (slightly increasing)
- Research In Motion - 14.8% (strongly increasing)
- Linux - 1.9% (stable)
- Other - 2.4% (strongly decreasing)
Some examples of PDAs:
- Apple Newton
- BlackBerry
- Casio Cassiopeia
- Casio Pocket viewer
- Franklin eBookMan
- Handspring Visor
- hp iPAQ Pocket PC (Originally Compaq iPAQ until HP merger in 2002)
- Nokia Series60
- Palm Pilot, Tungsten, Treo and Zire
- Psion 5
- Sharp Wizard and Zaurus
- Sony CLIÃÂ
- Xircom REX 5000 and REX 6000
- Dell's Axim
See also: ebook, laptop, personal area network, smartphone, sub-notebook, wearable computer, Toothing
External links
- PDA Hotspots Sites suitable for small screen PDA's
- Linux on PDAs
- Repair and upgrade instructions for PDAs