Since the early 1990s the PDA has gotten people to toss aside their pen and paper and store information in a manner which is just as portable, but also manageable. In just a few years PDAs developed from little more than calendars and address books to capable multimedia devices with serious connectivity and appreciable versatility.

While is hard not to appreciate the PDA's ability to change with the times, it appears that its heady days of mobile dominance are coming to an abrupt end. A number of factors are competing in the mobile products field right now, all of which are vying for the same buyers. The most formidable competition to the PDA is the smartphone, but there is also pressure from small laptops, the upcoming UMPC, increasingly capable cell phones, and a few other takers, like portable media players.

One of the most important issues with portable devices is their size. Inherent with this market segment is the desire to consolidate the functions of many devices into one- no matter how small something may be, we want to limit how many devices we carry with us. This is not only for the room they take up, but for the sake of simplicity. As such, the industry tends to move to more powerful devices, like the camera-phone or the smartphone, which merges the PDA and cell phone.

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