It was in United Kingdom that the PDA originated with Psion in the year 1984. With this launch, a new genre came to be defined in handheld computer. Companies such as Palm Computing as well as Apple introduced their own versions. Palm Pilot soon established as the most recognized PDA in the later half of 1990s. Games, web browsing, word processors and graphics were soon included into the PDA.
Earlier, PDAs had the Personal Information Manager applications typically including diary, a notebook, address and phone book, some games, handwriting recognition software and common reference material. Further there were such programs as Diary/scheduler, To-do list, Notepad, Drawing application, Finance software, Calculator, Organizer, Alarms, World time, File manager, Voice recorder, Data synchronization and Printer connection. The Email and web browser were added with wireless connections. Other programs included were Word processor, Spell checker, Custom dictionary and Spreadsheet. Incorporation of Global Positioning System (GPS) allowed customized maps and directions, tracking of movement and planning of trips whether traveling by air, sea or land irrespective of the mode of transport. The Route Planner application of Palmtop Software allowed the detailing of journey such as the starting and destination points. Or a simple pointing and clicking on a map along with places to be visited or avoided was enough to produce an accurate route map. The route map and travel plan was ready with a few flicks of your fingers. Popular Microsoft applications as PowerPoint, Excel and Word joined the array of functions.
PDAs available in the market included Palm TX, HP iPAQ hw6515, Dell Axim X51v, HP iPAQ hw6900 Mobile Messenger, HP iPAQ Pocket PC 2215, HP iPAQ h6315, HTC Advantage X7501, Palm Tungsten E2, Palm Treo 755p, RIM BlackBerry Curve (8300), Apple iPhone and many more.
The PDA application soon spread to other areas of life including shopping, mobile banking, and specialized Internet services as stock quotes, foreign exchange rates, weather, sports scores and maps. The PDA became an e-book reader, a photo wallet, a mobile web browser and an alarm clock besides many others. Convergence of technologies and programs has made PDAs smaller, compact and versatile encompassing almost all aspects of living.