The Personal Digital Assistant which is popularly known to yuppies as the PDA broke light in just about the same era as the mobile phones started shrinking. It was in the early 80's that we saw the first PDA brought by the pioneers in electronic office components. But its design was too bulky because of its keyboards and buttons. It did not proved to be a feasible portable device because of its weight and size.



In the early 90's a company producing computers made the first touch sensitive pda giving the old design a diet; it lost a lot in weight and trimmed its body by removing the keyboard buttons but beefed up its price that it was almost the same as an entry level laptop. It had its own handwriting recognition software which was not effective because the strokes where hard to master. Then again, the portable computing world experienced another flop.

In the late 90's a company manufacturing computer peripherals perfected the market's need-a reasonably priced, compact and easy to use pda. With this gadget; office work will never be the same though the early PDAs weren't built to be a portable substitute for computers since it only kept contacts, task lists, and planners. Only a handful of information can be kept in its minute memory.

When the big players of the computer industry started to chip in to the pda market, everything evolved overnight. PDAs cannot substitute the personal computer or the laptop but its core functions can be of great help for people on the go. Computer peripherals have extended its development to the pda market. As the growing demands of users who want to have an all in one device, pda manufacturers have improved its core into the "pocket personal computer" also known as the ppc.

The ppc pushes the envelope of portable computing to the next level by shoving in faster, more powerful microprocessors. With these powerful devices, music and video can be played with smooth and crisp resolutions. Third party applications can now be installed, extending the PDAs feature to more than just a personal information manager. Installing the right application software, bookkeeping, funds management software, dictionaries, encyclopedias, reference and entertainment e-books can be all uploaded by a few clicks of the mouse.

The next generation PPCs are packed with large megapixel digital camera and mobile phone features which have connectivity to almost all types namely WiFi, EDGE, and 3.5G. It has pairing connections such as BLUETOOTH, IR, and USB ports for ease in connection with other devices. The latest line of PPCs now can achieve high streaming video conferencing.

Computer peripheral manufacturers have supported the growth of PPCs in the past few years by making compatible hardware devices such as folding keyboards, AV out connections, removable memories, and etc. This has helped on the go users a lot to make their ppc experience easy and comfortably as possible. Pocket PC's can only be used when a regular pc or laptop is not available but in the end the user still needs to pair the device with the latter in order for it to save the new data.