But, what about the machines themselves? They are certainly more feature rich, have more RAM, better screens, and certainly, on the handheld devices, much better keyboards. Some offer MP3 stereo playback. They have better expansion possibilities and seem to be built better than the early machines.

But, what about usability? Are today's machines better able to help us get and stay organized? Or, have they evolved into units that offer more than we need, and cost too much? That's a question that the marketplace will answer. If market share is any indicator, the Palm OS seems to have the best solution. They offer an elegant electronic organizer that does its job well. And the software developers have cooperated. Does that mean it's better than a Windows CE machine? Absolutely not. I have an NEC Mobile Pro 770, and the ability to type comfortably on its expansive keyboard is great. I can't do that on any palmtop. But the Mobile Pro does not sit in my pocket at all, and is useless for simple organizing chores. My old Psion was bulkier and heavier than my new Palm Vx, but it did its job perfectly. My older Sharp also served me well, but my Palm Vx is simply easier to use than both these units.

So, for me, progress means usability, not necessarily scads of new features. It seems that, for me, the two-machine approach is the best way. I use the Palm Vx for day-to-day organization, and the NEC for document creation and connectivity.

Speaking of connections, none of my early units had the ability to connect to anything except my desktop computer, and even that had its headaches. Hey, the Internet wasn't a household word yet and modems were so slow that the only information you could send or receive was text-based, like the early CompuServe. Today's Windows CE machines all come with email and Internet connection capabilities. I use the Mobile Pro for that purpose whenever I travel, and it works fine, although it's a little slow for browsing, and the half VGA screen gets tiresome. Palm devices are capable of email and browsing, though the small screen makes it tough. There are modems available, as well as third party software that will get you connected. The ability to connect is essential today for many users, and will be much more important in the future. It seems that connecting to email and the Internet has, for most, become part of basic organizing and, as such, needs to be part of a complete PDA package. Palm should take notice.

So where does all this take us? Obviously there is a huge market for these machines. And obviously it's changing. The earliest units were electronic organizers, and all of today's palmtops and, to a lesser degree, the handheld devices are, at heart, first and foremost, organizers. If you remove the organizing functions from these machines you are left with little more than an expensive version of a music-playing Game Boy. As basic organizers only, today's units are no better than some of the early units. The basic functions are the same.