So what can you say about a company that revolutionized the way people stay organized?  Palm didn't invent the pda, but they danged near perfected it!  Until Micro$oft decided to stick their nose into the field, Palm pretty well owned the market in personal digital assistants.

Beginning in 1996 when Palm introduced the 1000 and the 5000, Palm stood the world on it's ear!  Sometime before 1997 U. S. Robotics bought Palm.  3Com bought Palm in 1997 and then turned around in 1999 and turned it into a fully independent subsidiary.  Since then Palm has continued to maintain a standard of keeping its line of pda's simple and clean.

Here's a few of the early Palm line of pda's that I have managed to add to my collection.

Model	Palm 5000	Palm Personal	Palm Professional	Palm IIIe Special Edition	Palm IIIxe
Date Introduced	March 1996	March 1997	March 1997 (note the change from 3Com to U. S. Robotics)	October 1999	February 2000
Memory	512K	512K	1Mb	2Mb	8Mb
Special features	expansion bay on back docking port	expansion bay on back docking port	expansion bay on back docking port	docking port clear case - ultra geek cool! flip cover	docking port flip cover
Comments	power button doesn't have the dimple!	Original Palm Pilot.  Before this, the device was simply called a Pilot.	Same as Personal, but more memory.	Definitely the most stylish with the clear case.  Otherwise, nothing special.	I was still using this one until the past Christmas when I gave myself a Tungsten e.  However, it doesn't qualify for the museum yet, so I gave it to my wife to use.
Original Price	???	$249	$369	$179	$249

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