Motorola Talkabout 2-Way Pager (2000-2001)

Motorola Talkabout 

The Motorola Talkabout T900, launched in June 2000 for $199, was the stylish, consumer-facing "social" cousin to the business-heavy Tango and PageWriter series. Ditching the corporate gray for translucent "Ice" colors like Aqua, Razberry, and Mystic Blue, the T900 was a clamshell 2-way pager featuring a full QWERTY keyboard and a 4-line backlit display. It was a massive cultural hit, selling over a million units in its first year by targeting the "youth" market with the slogan "Talk Without Talking"—a precursor to modern SMS culture. The device allowed users to send and receive emails and instant messages via the ReFLEX network, and even featured an early partnership with Microsoft to allow MSN Hotmail access on the go. While its bulk and the rise of mobile phones eventually pushed it out of the market, it remains the definitive icon of the early 2000s "beeper" craze, remembered for its "beaming" feature that let users swap contact info and ringtones wirelessly.

Source: John Babina III