The author appears to have his Apple-blinkers on. There were numerous PDAs around before the Newton/Messagepad. I'm sure other Register readers can give more examples, but in the UK the most notable was the series developed by Psion, starting with the Psion Organiser in 1984. Look it up on wikipedia, where you'll also find out about Sharp's earlier PDAs. Casio were certainly producing PDA type devices in the 1970's, although they were of course quite primitive.
Register
Prior forgotten technology
The author appears to have his Apple-blinkers on. There were numerous PDAs around before the Newton/Messagepad. I'm sure other Register readers can give more examples, but in the UK the most notable was the series developed by Psion, starting with the Psion Organiser in 1984. Look it up on wikipedia, where you'll also find out about Sharp's earlier PDAs. Casio were certainly producing PDA type devices in the 1970's, although they were of course quite primitive.