Daniel Robinson

Last month, Palm celebrated the 10th anniversary of its first PDA, the Pilot 1000. Over the years, technology in handhelds has changed so much that it seems much longer since that simple device with just 128kB of memory first appeared.

Although the Palm Pilot was not the first handheld computer, it managed to capture the attention of buyers (particularly in the US) by delivering a useful combination of features at a reasonable price. Does this hold any lessons for today's device makers?
Before Palm, there was Apple's ill-fated Newton and the British-made Psion
organiser, among others. In many ways, these were much more advanced than the first Palms; the Newton had full handwriting recognition, while the Psion Series 3 boasted a keyboard plus word processor, database and spreadsheet apps.

But the Newton suffered from being over-ambitious (the handwriting recognition system in the early models was useless), and while the Psion models proved popular here, they failed to keep up with rivals and Psion eventually ceased development.

With hindsight, it appears that Palm hit upon a winning formula, building devices that did a few simple tasks very well.

The early models were just electronic organisers and used a simplified pen input system.

Ironically, Palm has seen its handheld sales fall over recent years. For a number of reasons it too has failed to keep pace with rivals. In particular the operating system its devices run has effectively been stuck in a timewarp.

Nowadays, the traditional PDA is rapidly becoming an endangered species. Many phone handsets handily store contact and calendar details, while more costly smartphones can link to company email and even provide staff with the ability to view Office documents sent as attachments.

But is there a drawback to these new whizz-bang gadgets? An important lesson from the original Palm is that usability matters as much as functionality. Many of the latest devices have become essays in user frustration, as evidenced by IT Week editor Lem Bingley's experiences with a new phone.

With all the new-fangled features and comms options, there is now more need than ever before for an innovative user interface. Both Microsoft's and Symbian's platforms are handicapped by the fact that their software has to run on so many devices that they can't enforce any consistency.

Alas, Palm seems in no position to exploit this; its operating system unit was spun off years ago, and is now owned by another firm.

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