[ekianjo]

Let's not forget a number of PocketPC touch (stylus) devices were also phone-capable. That was YEARS before the iPhone. It had "apps" too, but we simply used to called that "programs" at that time. And there was no central market/appstore or anything. Most of these devices were very open.

[Terretta]

Had one of first Compaq iPaq GPRS sleeves, ordered directly from Hong Kong before US availability. (Late 2001, early 2002.) And Handango was my "app store" of choice.

The 5 years from 2002 to 2007 were interesting, but in hindsight seem to share so little with post iPhone industry.

[ekianjo]

It clearly did not reach critical mass at that time. There were a number of obstacles to adoption - devices were powerful enough to do things, but compatibility with office software was not well built-in (If I remember correctly you could not synchronize emails with Outlook right out of the box). But third party applications were often very good and feature-plenty. The media players were especially capable and well designed.

It was however, impossible to upgrade the software at that time (the OS), which rendered your device obsolete every time a major WindowsMobile version was released. This is happening again with Android and I can't say this is a very good idea.

[geon]

The interface on those was more of a barely usable desktop experience, that happened to use a stylus. You could not call it a "touch interface". My brother had a HP Jornada, and while he used through college, it was kind of sucky. It ran Doom, though.

http://www.pocketpcfaq.com/wce/21/jornada680.JPG

[ekianjo]

I disagree. Those devices were very usable but, of course, you needed 2 hands to do anything with them. You could do a lot of stuff with it, and a number of apps were way more advanced than what you see on android and ios nowadays. The finger interface has got much better, but a stylus was way more precise for many purposes. The surface covered by a finger induces great limitations to the interfaces you can create. There's no miracle.