Apple Newton MessagePad (1993-1998)

Apple Newton MessagePad H1000

🥇First Commercially-Released "Personal Digital Assistant"

The Apple Newton MessagePad H1000, launched on August 3, 1993, for $699 (roughly $1,500 in 2026 dollars), was the world's first true "Personal Digital Assistant"—a term coined by Apple CEO John Sculley. Built by Sharp in Japan, the H1000 was an ambitious attempt to replace the paper notepad with a 20MHz ARM 610-powered tablet that could "learn" a user's handwriting and intelligently link calendar events to contacts. While the hardware was ahead of its time, featuring an infrared port and a PCMCIA expansion slot, the early Newton OS 1.0 handwriting recognition was famously buggy, leading to the "Eat Up Martha" parody on The Simpsons and the device's reputation as a high-tech flop.

Source: eBay Auction