[gattilorenz]

I don’t know, I remember them being great from a HW point of view (I had an iPAQ 514 and it was mindblowing even without touch and just a tiny screen), but UX wise…

I now have another iPAQ with a stylus and touchscreen, and I’m grateful back then I did not have it nor the mobile version of Age of Empires… it’s addictive stuff and a crazy good port. I don’t remember anything so good on PalmOS 5 (we had a Garmin iQue 3600, with integrated GPS and navigation… also very futuristic).

[xp84]

They were great from a hardware point of view!! I'm just saying adoption was held back, compared to what it was in 2008-2010, because most of the things people lost their minds about in the later era were the always-networked type of things: Fast and accurate texting, web browsing, Google Maps, watching YouTube or Netflix on the bus or as you enjoy your lunch break at work. All those things require Internet and most people who might have (or did) buy an iPaq etc. would have usually not had access to Wi-Fi in most of those places and 3G data wouldn't come around (the US at least!) for a few more years.

We did see Windows Mobile 2G and 3G smartphones a year or two pre-iPhone, though, so maybe I'm full of it and that platform somehow didn't have something else the mass market wanted.