Weekend Discussion: First Mobile Device

When I read Warner’s post on the Compaq, the first “mobile” computer, it definitely was a blast from the past. A friend of mine actually had one of those. The big debate in those days – do you prefer amber or green screens? I liked the amber much better, myself…

Looking back on my own mobile computing history, I have two significant “first” mobile devices, my IBM ThinkPad 701C ultraportable with the Butterfly keyboard and my Palm Pilot Pro. The Butterfly was my first real notebook computer. I took it everywhere, although with about a 1.5 hour battery life, I couldn’t use it for long. And the keyboard was like magic. That system was rock solid. The PalmPilot was the first device I had with a pen and long before Palm was sued for using Pilot in the name. Those were heady days when I started learning Graffiti. The idea of using a pen for input just seemed so immediately natural for me. It only took another 5-6 years for Tablet PCs to take the pen to the next level.

Looking back at your own mobile history – what do you consider your first mobile device? What did you like best about it? What was the biggest limitation?

View our previous Weekend Discussions here.