Though still in its early stages, the acquisition bug was upon me. I soon found myself nosing through the computer stores where I discovered a little-known unit by a company called Psion. The model 3A, purchased on the spot, was just introduced, having replaced the smaller and less advanced model 3. This was a clamshell design with a miniscule keyboard and another unheard of (to me) OS called EPOC. The powerful applications included, among others, a word processor, a spreadsheet, a suite of organizing functions including a calendar, and to-do list. It also included a complete programming language built into the unit! Basically, it pretty much included all the functionality of today's best machines. And its digital sound system and recording application was actually superior to many of today's units. It only had 512K RAM, a paltry amount by today's standards, but the OS was (and still is) very efficient and you could pack a lot of data in. It also had two expansion slots that utilized proprietary cards for additional storage and backup. I still have this machine, as well, and my daughter uses it all the time, though it's starting to show its age. Psion is still very much in evidence in this market, and is a force to be reckoned with. Their OS is quite good. They lag behind only in market recognition and support in this country. Its interesting that one of their earliest units offered such a complete package.

Since the designers and manufacturers seem able to time new releases in perfect harmony with my ability to buy, each new release finds me standing in front of the display case, fondling the machines and fiddling with the keyboards. I watched as they grew both in size and functionality. Memory increased slowly from the half-megabyte of RAM on the Psion all the way to today's 32MB machines. I watched as displays went from black and white, to 4 bit grayscale, to 16 bit grayscale, and, eventually, color. There was one Casio unit (I forget its name, but I remember that I just had to have it) that offered a three color screen. It was a palmtop and the colors were pretty grim, but hey it was color! I used that unit until it was lost. Today's screens boast 65K colors and are a marvel to behold.

But let's think about what we have today. On one hand we have the Windows CE machines. They offer prodigious amounts of RAM, color screens, various expansion slots, built in modems on the handheld devices, and various other bells and whistles. They aren't merely organizers anymore.

On the other hand, we have the Palms OS. It has evolved from a basic electronic organizer that did its job simply and effectively, to an elegant electronic organizer that does its job simply and effectively. The debate over Windows CE vs. Palm OS rages. I notice Microsoft is trying mightily to retain the Windows CE feature list but make it more "Palm-like" (my terminology), and I notice Palm, Inc. has announced a color unit, ala Windows CE. Amazing. The whole industry is changing and so are the designs, all in an effort to get or retain market share.