To me, I’ve always associated the PDA with devices w/o the phone capability, pre-smartphones. Those existed. Looked similar to modern smartphones, just bulkier and with less capability. That’s been the distinction for me.
Frankly, the only other word for (cell)phone or mobile has been smartphone. I don’t think we have a better word for them yet (pocket computer just doesn’t grab you).
They didn’t catch on because in the era they existed it was very difficult to achieve any kind of connectivity with them to the outside world. By the time that was able to be ubiquitous, smartphones were already happening.
It should have been PDAs. For some reason that just didn’t catch on.
To me, I’ve always associated the PDA with devices w/o the phone capability, pre-smartphones. Those existed. Looked similar to modern smartphones, just bulkier and with less capability. That’s been the distinction for me.
Frankly, the only other word for (cell)phone or mobile has been smartphone. I don’t think we have a better word for them yet (pocket computer just doesn’t grab you).
They didn’t catch on because in the era they existed it was very difficult to achieve any kind of connectivity with them to the outside world. By the time that was able to be ubiquitous, smartphones were already happening.