The Palm Pilot is one of the most iconic devices in the history of technology and has played a pivotal role in the development of mobile computing. Released in the 1990s, it revolutionized personal digital assistants (PDAs) and paved the way for smartphones and many other mobile technologies that we now take for granted.
However, from today’s perspective, PDAs may seem to be one of the most difficult devices to explain to younger generations. These devices look like phones from the early 2010s, but why not simply add an antenna and create an iPhone from 10 years ago?
Smartphones in the 1990s looked like this…
To understand this, it helps to know what cell phones looked like back in the day. Cell phone networks were not as advanced as they are today, and communicating over a cell phone network required significant antennas and batteries. Devices that attempted to combine PDAs and telephones, such as the IBM Simon and Nokia Communicator, struggled to succeed.
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Victims of gravity: Apple’s Newton and a piece of wood in his pocket
Before phones became truly portable, Apple released the Newton MessagePad, which was essentially a smartphone without a phone. Years later, the Palm Pilot set a new standard for what mobile devices should be. Launched in 1993 for $699 (equivalent to $1,500 today), the Newton MessagePad was designed to replace paper notepads, and it was exactly what it looked like.
It had a 336 x 240 monochrome touchscreen, although “touchscreen” didn’t have the same meaning at the time. Current capacitive touchscreens can be operated by simply touching a conductive material, and require only a stylus for more precise input.
The Newton had a resistive touchscreen, which required you to apply pressure to operate it. If you are using a sharp object such as a stylus or a fingernail, the weight of your hand is sufficient. However, if you use your fingertips, you will need to press harder.
Battery life was an issue with the Newton, even when using four AAA batteries. Later models replaced it with larger AA batteries, making the device weigh up to 580g. To add insult to injury, the much-hyped word-based handwriting recognition systems were not consistent enough to be useful.
Newton’s handwriting recognition was mocked by The Simpsons (Note the worm in the Apple logo).
Founded by Jeff Hawkins, Palm was a PDA software company known for its Graffiti handwriting recognition system, which relied on simple character-based gestures. Hawkins realized that Palm’s software was being hampered by Newton and its imitators. If mobile devices were designed like small desktop computers, they would never gain mass appeal.
Handheld devices are used more frequently than laptops, but for shorter periods of time. It needed to be easy to carry, offer a small menu, and not have to be turned off when not in use.
According to legend, Hawkins famously carried a block of wood in his pocket for months to test whether people wanted a handheld device that fit comfortably and could be operated with one hand. “If I wanted to check my calendar, I would take it out and press the button on the tree,” Hawkins once said. “I walked around answering calls with this piece of wood, and of course it didn’t do anything.” He envisioned the Palm Pilot as something people could carry everywhere, and the block of wood was a big help in its size and weight. It was meant to simulate.
A wooden touchdown model at the Computer History Museum in California. Jeff Hawkins tested the PalmPilot design on this model by using chopsticks instead of a stylus. He pretended to take notes during meetings and counted the steps required to perform common tasks. Image credit: Atomic Taco
Mutual Symbiosis: The Golden Age of Handwriting Recognition, HotSync, and PDAs
Hawkins wanted to develop his own mobile device, codenamed “Touchdown,” but Palm lacked the resources to manufacture and sell it. Along with CEO Donna Dubinsky and vice president of marketing Ed Corrigan, he decided to sell the company to US Robotics, which is open to launching such a product.
The Palm Pilot was released in 1996, costs $299, weighs just 160g, and can run for weeks on two AAA batteries. It had a 160 x 160 display and a dedicated doodle input zone.
The Graffiti handwriting recognition system has become a signature element of Palm devices. This was not exactly the same as normal handwriting, but a simplified alphabet that was easier for devices to recognize. Although users had to learn a slightly different way of writing, graffiti quickly became iconic. Many users have become proficient with this input method, achieving incredible speed and accuracy.
Internally, the Pilot used a Dragon Ball CPU, an improved version of the Motorola 68000 that was also used in the original Apple Macintosh and Sega Genesis. The Pilot 1000 had 128KB of upgradable RAM, while the Pilot 5000 had 512KB.
IBM has reached an agreement to sell the Palm III under the name WorkPad.
Pilot aimed to enhance the PC, not replace it. The PDA came with a dock that connected to the PC and physical buttons for syncing calendars, contacts, and notes via HotSync software. The concept was that users could sync their devices with their desktop computers and transfer files, contacts, and appointments with the push of a button.
This ability to easily sync data between devices was groundbreaking at the time and was a precursor to the cloud-based syncing we use today.
Within a few years, the Palm Pilot became synonymous with PDAs, selling more than 1 million units. By comparison, Apple’s MessagePad sold just 200,000 units. When Steve Jobs returned to Apple and became CEO, he discontinued the entire line of Newton products.
Long before the Apple App Store or Google Play, Palm Pilot had a thriving community of developers creating applications. The Palm Pilot’s operating system, Palm OS, has a well-documented API that developers can use to create thousands of apps. These include everything from office applications to medical calculators and games, and planted the seeds for today’s massive mobile app ecosystem.
The second generation Palm PDA became known as the PalmPilot (in a nutshell) due to a lawsuit from Pilot, a pen company that planned to sell a PDA stylus.
An amazing collection of vintage PDAs showcasing the history of early mobile computing. Among them is the Sony Clie, a series of PDAs powered by Palm OS known for their sleek design and multimedia capabilities. Image credit: user5518 on reddit.
The next generation Palm III had 2MB of flash memory and allowed users to add their own apps. Many of these apps are available on the Internet Archive. The Pilot line was succeeded by the Arm-based Palm Tungsten series. In total, Palm sold more than 30 million PDAs.
Palm pilots became a status symbol in the late 1990s and early 2000s. It has been featured in numerous TV shows and movies as a device for businessmen and technology enthusiasts. One notable example is “The X-Files,” in which FBI agents use a Palm Pilot to record notes. This device helped solidify the idea that handheld technology is essential to productivity and efficiency.
Convergent evolution: Pocket PC devices
In the early 2000s, the smartphone concept finally took off with two product lines featuring physical keyboards. BlackBerry and Handspring Treo, powered by Palm OS and founded by three major Palm companies. The company eventually merged with Palm.
The Treo was one of the first successful smartphones and helped lay the foundation for the modern smartphone by integrating communication, email, and calendar into one device. At the same time, the Windows-based Pocket PC device became the Newton’s spiritual successor.
Meanwhile, rumors persisted that Apple was considering re-entering the mobile space, and Steve Jobs was reportedly interested in acquiring Palm as a shortcut to the handheld market. Ultimately, Jobs decided to build something entirely new in-house. We know how that story unfolds – how that decision led to the creation of the iPhone has been told many times. Still, it’s interesting to imagine how things might have been different if Apple had acquired Palm.
When Apple introduced the iPhone in 2007, it was clear that lessons had been learned from the pilot. However, the iPhone uses a capacitive touchscreen, making it easier to type with both thumbs rather than a stylus, unlike the design of earlier smartphones such as the Pilot.
The “smartphone without a phone” concept continued to be popular in the 2010s, thanks to the iPhone-based iPod Touch and small Android tablets.
Palm’s decline in popularity is often due to the company’s inability to keep up with the rapidly evolving smartphone market, especially after the launch of the original iPhone.
In 2009, Palm made a notable comeback attempt with the Palm Pre, powered by the revolutionary webOS. Despite advanced multitasking and gesture control, Palm was never able to regain its former dominance in the handheld market.
But Palm made a notable comeback in 2009 with the Palm Pre, which was powered by webOS, an advanced operating system with ahead-of-its-time features like multitasking and notifications. Despite positive reviews, Palm was unable to regain market share, and the company was eventually acquired by HP.
Palm’s enduring legacy
HP retired the Palm brand in 2011 in favor of the HP brand. This marked the end of an era when Palm, Blackberry, and Nokia regularly competed for the smartphone/PDA throne.
However, about seven years later, the Palm brand was briefly revived with the introduction of the “Palm” cell phone. This wasn’t a full-fledged smartphone, but a companion device designed to minimize screen time while providing access to important apps. Although the device was not a mainstream hit, it evoked nostalgia and sought to provide a solution to the digital overload that many people are experiencing today.
Although Palm as a company eventually declined, webOS had a lasting impact. HP’s acquisition of Palm introduced webOS to larger platforms, and the operating system’s innovations in multitasking and touch gestures influenced future mobile OS designs. In fact, many of the gesture-based controls on modern smartphones can trace their roots back to Palm’s webOS.
Thirty years after the Newton, Apple released the Vision Pro mixed reality headset, and it’s hard to ignore certain similarities. In trying to recreate the iPad experience in wearable form, I ended up with just two hours of battery life. This may be a blessing in disguise, as the headset weighs 600g and can weigh over 1kg with a 353g battery.
Compared to other form factors, mixed reality headsets have the blurriest line between active and background use, and Apple has failed to adapt to this usage pattern.
Even if the Vision Pro had the potential to succeed as a very special-purpose device, its $3,499 introductory price virtually guarantees that it won’t. If mixed reality becomes mainstream, it will need its own version of the Palm Pilot.
bonus material
#1: This nostalgic Palm V commercial highlights wireless communication between two Palm devices. IrDA (infrared) allows users to “send” information to another IrDA-enabled device by aligning their infrared ports, typically within a few feet of each other.
#2: A quick showcase of the IBM Simon Personal Communicator, considered the world’s first smartphone:
