Nine years ago a modem company called US Robotics helped launch the PDA (personal digital assistant) market with the PalmPilot, a pocket-sized device designed as an electronic replacement for a diary, address book and notepad.

The PalmPilot was not the first handheld PC - Apple’s Newton and Psion’s Organiser had both already appeared -but it was the first pen-based PDA to achieve real consumer market success and , as such, was an icon for the times.