History of Digital Media from 1990 1999

1990 - DVD
• DVD (sometimes explained as "digital versatile disc" or "digital video disc") is a
digital optical disc storage format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony,
Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs can be played in multiple types of players,
including DVD players. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than compact discs
while having the same dimensions.
• Pre-recorded DVDs are mass-produced using molding machines that physically
stamp data onto the DVD. Such discs are known as DVD-ROM, because data can
only be read and not written or erased. Blank recordable DVD discs (DVD-R and
DVD+R) can be recorded once using a DVD recorder and then function as a DVD-
ROM. Rewritable DVDs (DVD-RW, DVD+RW, and DVD-RAM) can be recorded and
erased many times.
• DVDs are used in DVD-Video consumer digital video format and in DVD-Audio
consumer digital audio format, as well as for authoring DVD discs written in a
special AVCHD format to hold high definition material (often in conjunction with
AVCHD format camcorders). DVDs containing other types of information may be
referred to as DVD data discs.

1990 – DVD - History
• Before the advent of DVD in 1995, Video CD (VCD) became one of the first formats for distributing
digitally encoded films on standard 120 mm (4.7 in) optical discs. (Its predecessor, CD Video, used
analog video encoding.) VCD was on the market in 1993. In the same year, two new optical disc
storage formats were being developed. One was the Multimedia Compact Disc (MMCD), backed by
Philips and Sony, and the other was the Super Density (SD) disc, supported by Toshiba, Time
Warner, Matsushita Electric, Hitachi, Mitsubishi Electric, Pioneer, Thomson, and JVC. A much earlier
consumer optical disc data storage device, known as LaserDisc, was developed in the United States.
Optical recording technology was invented by David Paul Gregg and James Russell in 1958 and first
patented in 1961. LaserDisc first came to market in Atlanta, Georgia in 1978, but used much larger
discs than the later formats. Due to the high cost of players and discs, consumer adoption of
LaserDisc was very low in both North America and Europe, and was not widely used anywhere
outside Japan and the more affluent areas of Southeast Asia, such as Hong-Kong, Singapore,
Malaysia and Taiwan.
• Representatives from the SD camp asked IBM for advice on the file system to use for their disc, and
sought support for their format for storing computer data. Alan E. Bell, a researcher from IBM's
Almaden Research Center, got that request, and also learned of the MMCD development project.
Wary of being caught in a repeat of the costly videotape format war between VHS and Betamax in
the 1980s, he convened a group of computer industry experts, including representatives from
Apple, Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, Dell, and many others. This group was referred to as the
Technical Working Group, or TWG.

1990 – DVD - History
• The TWG voted to boycott both formats unless the two camps agreed on a single, converged
standard. They recruited Lou Gerstner, president of IBM, to pressure the executives of the warring
factions. In one significant compromise, the MMCD and SD groups agreed to adopt proposal SD 9,
which specified that both layers of the dual-layered disc be read from the same side—instead of
proposal SD 10, which would have created a two-sided disc that users would have to turn over. As a
result, the DVD specification provided a storage capacity of 4.7 GB for a single-layered, single-sided
disc and 8.5 GB for a dual-layered, single-sided disc. The DVD specification ended up similar to
Toshiba and Matsushita's Super Density Disc, except for the dual-layer option (MMCD was single-
sided and optionally dual-layer—whereas SD was single-layer, but optionally double-sided) and
EFMPlus modulation designed by Kees Schouhamer Immink.
• Philips and Sony decided that it was in their best interests to avoid another format war over their
Multimedia Compact Disc, and agreed to unify with companies backing the Super Density Disc to
release a single format, with technologies from both. After other compromises between MMCD
and SD, the computer companies through TWG won the day, and a single format, now called DVD,
was agreed upon. The TWG also collaborated with the Optical Storage Technology Association
(OSTA) on the use of their implementation of the ISO-13346 file system (known as Universal Disk
Format) for use on the new DVDs.

1990 – DVD – History - Adoption
Movie and home entertainment distributors adopted the
DVD format to replace the ubiquitous VHS tape as the
primary consumer digital video distribution format. They
embraced DVD because it produces superior moving
pictures and sound, provides superior data lifespan, and
can be interactive. Interactivity on LaserDiscs had proven
desirable to consumers, especially collectors. When
LaserDisc prices dropped from approximately $100 per
disc to $20 per disc at retail, this luxury feature became
available for mass consumption. Simultaneously, the
movie studios decided to change their home
entertainment release model from a rental model to a for
purchase model, and large numbers of DVDs were sold.

At the same time, a demand for interactive
design talent and services was created. Movies
in the past had uniquely designed title
sequences. Suddenly every movie being
released required information architecture and
interactive design components that matched the
film's tone and were at the quality level that
Hollywood demanded for its product.

DVD as a format had two qualities at the time that were
not available in any other interactive medium: enough
capacity and speed to provide high quality, full motion
video and sound, and low cost delivery mechanism
provided by consumer products retailers. Retailers would
quickly move to sell their players for under $200, and
eventually for under $50 at retail. In addition, the
medium itself was small enough and light enough to mail
using general first class postage. Almost overnight, this
created a new business opportunity and model for
business innovators to re-invent the home entertainment
distribution model. It also gave companies an inexpensive
way to provide business and product information on full
motion video through direct mail.

1992 - MiniDisc Player
• The MiniDisc (MD) is an obsolete magneto-optical disc-
based data storage device for 74 minutes and, later, 80
minutes, of digitized audio or 1 gigabyte of Hi-MD data. The
Sony brand audio players were on the market from
September 1992 until March 2013.
• MiniDisc was announced by Sony in September 1992 and
released that November for sale in Japan and in December
in Europe, Canada, the USA and other countries . The music
format was originally based exclusively on ATRAC audio
data compression, but the option of linear PCM digital
recording was later introduced to attain audio quality
comparable to that of a compact disc. MiniDisc were very
popular in Japan but made a limited impact elsewhere.
• Sony announced they would cease development of MD
devices, with last of the players to be sold by March 2013.

1992 - MiniDisc Player - History
• In 1983, just a year after the introduction of the Compact Disc,
Immink and Braat presented the first experiments with erasable
magneto-optical Compact Discs during the 73rd AES Convention in
Eindhoven. It took, however, almost ten years before their idea was
commercialized.
• Sony's MiniDisc was one of two rival digital systems, introduced in
1992, that were both targeted as a replacement for the Philips
analog cassette audio tape system: the other was Digital Compact
Cassette (DCC), created by Philips and Matsushita. Sony had
originally intended for Digital Audio Tape (DAT) to be the dominant
home digital audio recording format, replacing the analog cassette.
Due to technical delays, DAT was not launched until 1989, and by
then the U.S. dollar had fallen so far in relation to the yen that the
introductory DAT machine Sony had intended to market for about
$400 in the late 1980s now had to retail for $800 or even $1000 to
break even, putting it out of reach for most users.

• Relegating DAT for professional use, Sony set to work to come up with a
simpler, more economical digital home format. By the time Sony came up
with MiniDisc in late 1992, Philips had introduced a competing system,
DCC (the digital compact cassette). This created marketing confusion very
similar to the Beta versus VHS battle of the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Sony attempted to license MD technology to other manufacturers, with
JVC, Sharp, Pioneer, Panasonic and others all producing their own MD
systems. However, non-Sony machines were not widely available in North
America, and companies such as Technics and Radio Shack tended to
promote DCC instead.
• Despite having a loyal customer base (primarily musicians and audio
enthusiasts), MiniDisc met with only limited success. It was relatively
popular in Japan during the 1990s but did not enjoy comparable sales in
other world markets. Since then, Recordable CDs, flash memory and HDD-
based digital audio players introduced in 1998 have become increasingly
popular as playback devices.

• The initial low uptake of MiniDisc was attributed to the small number of
pre-recorded albums available on MD as a relatively small number of
record labels embraced the format. The initial high cost of equipment and
blank media was also a factor. Stationary MiniDisc player/recorders never
got into the lower price ranges, and most consumers had to connect the
portable player to the hi-fi in order to record. This inconvenience
contrasted with the earlier common use of cassette decks as a standard
part of an ordinary hi-fi set-up.
• MiniDisc technology was faced with new competition (CD Consortium)
from the recordable compact disc (CD-R) when it became more affordable
to consumers in 1996. Initially, Sony believed that it would take a decade
for CD-R prices to become affordable (starting at about $12 per blank CD-R
disk in 1994). But the prices fell very quickly, to the point where CD-R
blanks sank below $1.00 by the late 1990s, compared to around $2.00 for
similar 80-minute MiniDisc blanks.

• The biggest competition for MiniDisc came from the
emergence of MP3 players. With the Diamond Rio
player in 1998, the mass market began to eschew
physical media in favor of file-based systems.
• By 2007, because of the waning popularity of the
format and the increasing popularity of solid-state MP3
players, Sony was producing only one model, the Hi-
MD MZ-RH1 (also available as the MZ-M200 in North
America packaged with a Sony microphone and limited
Macintosh software support).

• The introduction of the MZ-RH1 allowed users to freely move
uncompressed digital recordings back and forth from the MiniDisc to a
computer without the copyright protection limitations previously imposed
upon the NetMD series. This allowed the MiniDisc to better compete with
HD recorders and MP3 players. However, even pro users like broadcasters
and news reporters had already abandoned MiniDisc in favor of solid-state
recorders, due to their long recording times, open digital content sharing,
high-quality digital recording capabilities and reliable, lightweight design.
• On July 7, 2011, Sony announced that it would no longer ship MiniDisc
Walkman products as of September 2011, effectively killing the format.
• On February 1, 2013, Sony issued a press release on the Nikkei stock
exchange that it will cease shipment of MD devices, with last of the
players to be sold in March 2013. However, they will continue to sell
media and offer repair services.

1993 – Laser Disc
• LaserDisc or (LD) is a home video format and the first commercial optical disc
storage medium, initially licensed, sold, and marketed as MCA DiscoVision (also
known as simply "DiscoVision") in North America in 1978.
• Although the format was capable of offering higher-quality video and audio than
its consumer rivals, the VHS and Betamax videocassette systems, LaserDisc never
managed to gain widespread use in North America, largely due to high costs for
the players and video titles themselves and the inability to record TV
programming. It also remained a largely obscure format in Europe and Australia. It
was much more popular in Japan and in the more affluent regions of Southeast
Asia, such as Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malaysia, being the prevalent rental video
medium in Hong Kong during the 1990s. Its superior video and audio quality did
make it a somewhat popular choice among videophiles and film enthusiasts during
its lifespan.
• The technologies and concepts behind LaserDisc are the foundation for later
optical disc formats, including Compact Disc, DVD, and Blu-ray Disc.

1993 – Laser Disc - History
Optical video recording technology, using a transparent disc was
invented by David Paul Gregg and James Russell in 1958 (and patented
in 1961 and 1990). The Gregg patents were purchased by MCA in 1968.
By 1969, Philips had developed a videodisc in reflective mode, which
has advantages over the transparent mode. MCA and Philips then
decided to combine their efforts and first publicly demonstrated the
video disc in 1972.
LaserDisc was first available on the market, in Atlanta, on December
15, 1978, two years after the introduction of the VHS VCR, and four
years before the introduction of the CD (which is based on laser disc
technology). Initially licensed, sold, and marketed as MCA DiscoVision
(also known as simply "DiscoVision") in North America in 1978, the
technology was previously referred to internally as Optical Videodisc
System, Reflective Optical Videodisc, Laser Optical Videodisc, and
Disco-Vision (with a dash), with the first players referring to the format
as "Video Long Play”.

Pioneer Electronics later purchased the majority stake in the format and marketed it
as both LaserVision (format name) and LaserDisc (brand name) in 1980, with some
releases unofficially referring to the medium as "Laser Videodisc". Philips produced
the players while MCA produced the discs. The Philips-MCA cooperation was not
successful, and discontinued after a few years. Several of the scientists responsible for
the early research (Richard Wilkinson, Ray Dakin and John Winslow) founded Optical
Disc Corporation (now ODC Nimbus).
In 1979, the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago opened their "Newspaper"
exhibit which used interactive LaserDiscs to allow visitors to search for the front page
of any Chicago Tribune newspaper. This was a very early example of public access to
electronically stored information in a museum.
The first LaserDisc title marketed in North America was the MCA DiscoVision release of
Jaws in 1978. The last title released in North America was Paramount's Bringing Out
the Dead in 2000. The last Japanese released movie was the Hong Kong film Tokyo
Raiders from Golden Harvest. A dozen or so more titles continued to be released in
Japan, until the end of 2001. Production of LaserDisc players continued until January
14, 2009, when Pioneer stopped making them.

In the mid-`80's Lucasfilm pioneered the EditDroid non-linear editing system
for film and television based on the LaserDisc jukebox players described
below.
Instead of printing dailies out on film, the processed negatives would be sent
to the mastering plant to be assembled from their 10-minute camera negative
elements into 20-minute film segments which would then be able to be
mastered onto single-sided blank LaserDiscs, just as a DVD would be burnt at
home today, and allow for much easier selection and preparation of an Edit
Decision List. In the days before video assist was available in cinematography,
this was the only other way a film crew could see their work.
The EDL went to the negative cutter who then cut the camera negative
accordingly and assembled the finished film. Only 24 EditDroid systems were
ever built, even though the ideas and technology are still in use today.

The only difference in the later systems was, just as a jukebox has only two
playback heads, one for each side of the disc, or one head which rotates to
the selected side, the later EditDroid experiments borrowed from hard-drive
technology of having multiple discs on the same spindle and added numerous
playback heads and numerous electronics to the basic jukebox design so that
any point on each of the discs would be accessible within seconds. This
eliminated the need for racks and racks of industrial LaserDisc players since
EditDroid discs were only single-sided.
It was estimated that in 1998, LaserDisc players were in approximately 2% of
U.S. households (roughly two million). By comparison, in 1999, players were
in 10% of Japanese households. LaserDisc was released on June 10, 1981 in
Japan[clarification needed], and a total of 3.6 million LaserDisc players were
sold there. A total of 16.8 million LaserDisc players were sold worldwide, of
which 9.5 million of them were sold by Pioneer.

1995 – Toy Story
• Toy Story is a 1995 American computer-animated buddy-
comedy adventure film produced by Pixar Animation
Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. Directed by
John Lasseter, Toy Story was the first feature-length
computer-animated film and the first theatrical film
produced by Pixar. Toy Story follows a group of
anthropomorphic toys who pretend to be lifeless whenever
humans are present, and focuses on the relationship
between Woody, a pullstring cowboy doll (voiced by Tom
Hanks), and Buzz Lightyear, an astronaut action figure
(voiced by Tim Allen). The film was written by John
Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, Joel Cohen, Alec Sokolow, and
Joss Whedon, and featured music by Randy Newman. Its
executive producers were Steve Jobs and Edwin Catmull.

1995 – Toy Story
• Pixar, which produced short animated films to promote
their computers, was approached by Disney to produce a
computer-animated feature after the success of the short
film, Tin Toy (1988), which is told from a small toy's
perspective. Lasseter, Stanton, and Pete Docter wrote early
story treatments which were thrown out by Disney, who
pushed for a more edgy film. After disastrous story reels,
production was halted and the script was re-written, better
reflecting the tone and theme Pixar desired: that "toys
deeply want children to play with them, and that this desire
drives their hopes, fears, and actions." The studio, then
consisting of a relatively small number of employees,
produced the film under minor financial constraints.

1995 – Toy Story
• The top-grossing film on its opening weekend, Toy Story went on to earn
over $361 million worldwide. Reviews were universally positive, praising
both the animation's technical innovation and the screenplay's wit and
sophistication, and it is now widely considered by many critics to be one of
the best animated films ever made. The film received three Academy
Award nominations including Best Original Screenplay, Best Original Score,
and Best Original Song for "You've Got a Friend in Me", as well as winning
a Special Achievement Academy Award. In addition to home media
releases and theatrical re-releases, Toy Story-inspired material has run the
gamut from toys, video games, theme park attractions, spin-offs,
merchandise, and two sequels—Toy Story 2 (1999) and Toy Story 3
(2010)—both of which also garnered massive commercial success and
critical acclaim. Toy Story was inducted into the National Film Registry as
being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" in 2005, its first
year of eligibility.

1996 – Nintendo N64
• The Nintendo 64 (Japanese: ニンテンドー64 Hepburn: Nintendō
Rokujūyon?), stylized as NINTENDO64 and often referred to as N64,
is Nintendo's third home video game console for the international
market. Named for its 64-bit central processing unit, it was released
in June 1996 in Japan, September 1996 in North America, March
1997 in Europe and Australia, September 1997 in France and
December 1997 in Brazil. It is the industry's latest major home
console to use the cartridge as its primary storage format, although
current handheld systems (such as the Playstation Vita and
Nintendo 3DS) also use cartridges. While the N64 was succeeded by
Nintendo's MiniDVD-based GameCube in November 2001, N64
consoles remained available until the system was retired in late
2003.

• Code named Ultra 64, the console's design was mostly finalized by
mid-1995, though Nintendo 64's launch was delayed until 1996. As
part of the fifth generation of gaming, the N64 competed primarily
with the PlayStation and the Sega Saturn. The Nintendo 64 was
launched with three games: Super Mario 64 and Pilotwings 64,
released worldwide; and Saikyō Habu Shōgi, released only in Japan.
The Nintendo 64's suggested retail price at launch was US$199.99
and it was later marketed with the slogan "Get N, or get Out!". The
console was ultimately released in a range of different colors and
designs, and an assortment of limited-edition controllers were sold
or used as contest prizes during the N64's lifespan. The N64 sold
32.93 million units worldwide, and in 2009, it was named the 9th
greatest video game console by IGN. Time Magazine named it their
1996 Machine of the Year.

• One of its technical drawbacks is a limited texture
cache, which can hold textures of limited
dimensions and reduced color depth, which must
be stretched to cover larger in-game surfaces. Its
vintage ROM cartridges are constrained by small
capacity and high production expenses,
compared to the compact disc format used by its
chief competitors. Some third-party publishers
that supported Nintendo's previous consoles
reduced their output or stopped publishing for
the console; the N64's most successful games
came from first-party or second-party studios.

1996 – Nintendo N64 - History
• At the beginning of the 1990s, Nintendo led the video game industry with its
Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). Although a follow-up console, the Super
Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), was successful, sales took a hit from the
Japanese recession. Competition from long-time rival Sega, as well as relative
newcomer Sony, emphasized Nintendo's need to develop a successor for the SNES,
or risk losing market dominance to its rivals. Further complicating matters,
Nintendo also faced a backlash from third-party developers unhappy with
Nintendo's onerous licensing policies.
• Silicon Graphics, Inc. (SGI), a long-time leader in graphics visualization and
supercomputing, was interested in expanding its business by adapting its
technology into the higher volume realm of consumer products, starting with the
video game market. Based upon its MIPS R4000 family of supercomputing and
workstation CPUs, SGI developed a CPU requiring a fraction of the resources:
consuming only 0.5 watts of power instead of 1.5 to 2 watts, with an estimated
target price of US$40 instead of US$80–200. The company created a design
proposal for a video game system, seeking an already well established partner in
that market. James H. Clark, founder of SGI, initially offered the proposal to Tom
Kalinske, then CEO of Sega of America; the next candidate was Nintendo.

• The historical details of these preliminary negotiations were controversial between the two
competing suitors. Tom Kalinske said that he and Joe Miller of Sega of America were "quite
impressed" with SGI's prototype, inviting their hardware team to travel from Japan to meet with
SGI. The engineers from Sega of Japan claimed that their evaluation of the early prototype had
uncovered several unresolved hardware issues and deficiencies. Those were subsequently resolved,
but Sega had already decided against SGI's design. Nintendo resisted that summary conclusion,
arguing that the reason for SGI's ultimate choice of partner is due to Nintendo having been a more
appealing business partner than Sega. While Sega demanded exclusive rights to the chip, Nintendo
was willing to license the technology on a non-exclusive basis. Michael Slater, publisher of
Microprocessor Report said, "The mere fact of a business relationship there is significant because of
Nintendo's phenomenal ability to drive volume. If it works at all, it could bring MIPS to levels of
volume they never dreamed of."
• James Clark met with Nintendo CEO Hiroshi Yamauchi in early 1993, thus initiating Project Reality.
On August 23, 1993, the two companies announced a global joint partnership and licensing
agreement surrounding Project Reality, projecting that the yet unnamed eventual product would be
"developed specifically for Nintendo, will be unveiled in arcades in 1994, and will be available for
home use by late 1995 ... below $250." This announcement coincided with Nintendo's August 1993
Shoshinkai trade show.

• As with most of the computing industry, Nintendo had limited experience with 3D
graphics, and worked with several outside companies to develop the technology.
Some chip technology was provided by NEC, Toshiba, and Sharp. Silicon Graphics
(SGI) and its subsidiary MIPS Technologies were responsible for the R4300i
microprocessor and the 3D graphics hardware used in the N64. SGI had recently
acquired MIPS Computer Systems, and the two worked together toward a low-cost
realtime 3D graphics hardware system.
• The initial Ultra 64 software development platform was developed by SGI in the
form of their Onyx supercomputer featuring Project Reality's namesake
RealityEngine2 graphics boards, with early Ultra 64 application and emulation APIs.
Upon this early platform, Nintendo's select game developer partners could fully
prototype their games according to SGI's estimated Ultra 64 performance target,
prior to the finalization of the console hardware specifications. That software-
based prototype platform was later supplanted by a workstation-hosted simulation
board, representing the finalized console hardware. SGI's performance estimates
based upon the supercomputing platform were ultimately reported to be fairly
accurate to the consumer console product.

• The console's design was revealed to the public for the first time in late Q2 1994. Pictures of the
console showed the Nintendo Ultra 64 logo, a ROM cartridge, but no controller. This prototype
console's form factor would be retained by the product eventually launched as Nintendo 64. The
news that the console would be cartridge-based prompted analysis by the gaming media.
Nintendo's vice president of marketing Peter Main stated that "The choice we made is not cartridge
versus CD, it's silicon over optical. When it comes to speed, no other format approaches the silicon-
based cartridge." The system was frequently marketed as the world's first 64-bit gaming system.
Atari had claimed to have made the first 64-bit game console with their Atari Jaguar, but the Jaguar
only uses a 64-bit architecture in conjunction with two 32-bit RISC processors and a 16/32-bit
Motorola 68000.
• Later in Q2 1994, Nintendo signed a licensing agreement with Midway's parent company which
enabled Midway to develop and market arcade games using the Project Reality hardware and
formed a joint venture company called Williams/Nintendo to market Nintendo-exclusive home
conversions of these games. The result is two arcade games, Killer Instinct and Cruis'n USA, which
boasted their upcoming release on the arcade branch of the Ultra 64 platform. Compared to the
console branch of Ultra 64, the arcade branch uses a different MIPS CPU, has no Reality
Coprocessor, and uses a hard drive instead of a cartridge. Killer Instinct features pre-rendered
character artwork, and CG movie backgrounds that are streamed off the hard drive and animated
as the characters move horizontally.

• The completed Nintendo 64 was fully unveiled in a playable form to
the public on November 24, 1995, at the 7th Annual Shoshinkai
Software Exhibition in Japan. Nintendo's next-generation console
was introduced as the "Nintendo 64" (a name given by Shigesato
Itoi, who had named the Game Boy), contrary to speculation that it
would be called "Ultra 64". Photos of the event were disseminated
on the web by Game Zero magazine two days later. Official
coverage by Nintendo followed later via the Nintendo Power
website and print magazine.
• In the lead up to the console's release, Nintendo had adopted a
new global branding strategy, assigning the console the same name
for all markets: Nintendo 64.

• The console was originally slated for release by Christmas of 1995.
In May 1995, Nintendo pushed back the release to April 1996. The
prospect of a release the following year at a lower price than the
competition lowered sales of competing Sega and Sony consoles
during the important Christmas shopping season.
• In its explanation of the delay, Nintendo claimed it needed more
time for Nintendo 64 software to mature, and for third-party
developers to produce games. Adrian Sfarti, a former engineer for
SGI, attributed the delay to hardware problems; he claimed that the
chips underperformed in testing and were being redesigned. In
1996, the Nintendo 64's software development kit was redesigned
as the Partner-N64 system, by Kyoto Microcomputer, Co. Ltd. of
Japan.

1997 – Personal Digital Asistant (PDA)

1997 – Personal Digital Asistant (PDA)
• A personal digital assistant (PDA), also known as a handheld PC, or
personal data assistant, is a mobile device that functions as a
personal information manager. The term evolved from Personal
Desktop Assistant, a software term for an application that prompts
or prods the user of a computer with suggestions or provides quick
reference to contacts and other lists. PDAs were discontinued in
early 2010s after the widespread adoption of smartphones.
• Nearly all PDAs have the ability to connect to the Internet. A PDA
has an electronic visual display, enabling it to include a web
browser, all models also have audio capabilities enabling use as a
portable media player, and also enabling most of them to be used
as mobile phones. Most PDAs can access the Internet, intranets or
extranets via Wi-Fi or Wireless Wide Area Networks. Most PDAs
employ touchscreen technology.

1997 – Personal Digital Asistant (PDA) - History
• The first PDA was released in 1984 by Psion, the Organizer.
Followed by Psion's Series 3, in 1991, which began to resemble the
more familiar PDA style. It also had a full keyboard. The term PDA
was first used on January 7, 1992 by Apple Computer CEO John
Sculley at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada,
referring to the Apple Newton. In 1994, IBM introduced the first
PDA with full mobile phone functionality, the IBM Simon, which can
also be considered the first smartphone. Then in 1996, Nokia
introduced a PDA with full mobile phone functionality, the 9000
Communicator, which became the world's best-selling PDA. The
Communicator spawned a new category of PDAs: the "PDA phone",
now called "smartphone". Another early entrant in this market was
Palm, with a line of PDA products which began in March 1996.

History of Digital Media from 1990 1999

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History of Digital Media from 1990 1999