PDA

PDA stands for Personal Data Assistant.  A PDA normally has several productivity conveniences such as a calendar where a person may store appointments, a phone and address list, memo pads with notes, and several other similar productivity aids.  PDAs deserve honorable mention in the wireless world due to converging  technologies.  By converging technologies we mean that at one time, many of us needed many different electronic products to do all of the functions that we wanted to do.  As time goes on, those technologies converge and a single new product may do what it had taken four products to do in the past.

PDAs are a good example of this.  A Blackberry cell phone, for example, might be considered a combination cell phone, PDA, combined with even a small portable computer that can receive and send emails.  That is what we mean by converging technologies.  Instead of a customer needing to buy a separate cell phone, PDA, and a portable computer for travel, a Blackberry just might do their application directly. 

Even a more modest cell phone if "data ready" might do some of the subjects of a PDA - including perhaps calendar, calculator, phone directory and perhaps even be capable of receiving and sending simple email messages.