Originally Posted by
detwilers
I owned one of these in 1993 before the Newton Launched.
I actually still have it in the basement. The Tandy Zoomer was Marketed by Tandy (Radio Shack), made by Casio, and ran on Palm computing software. Didn't do to well but palm was able to make it through the next few years by marketing their synchronization software for Hp devices, and the Graffiti handwriting reconition software for the Apple Newton MessagePad.
Palm was acquired by US Robotics in 1995. At that point Palm was able to launch many sucessful devices.
The US Robotics PalmPilot (circa 1995 - best $300 I spent at the time) was the first commercially successful PDA - I was the proud owner of one very shortly after it was released - it was awesome for its day - pocketable, readable (even with non backlit LCD), fully syncable with a desktop program (just pop it into its charging cradle and hit a button. No more changing out your personal planner every year. Too bad Palm couldn't build on its lead with that and the Treo series. Had a great head start on both Windows Mobile and later the iPhone.