Windows Phone Thoughts: Happy 10th Anniversary Pocket PC!

"Today, exactly 10 years ago, Microsoft announced at an event in New York's Grand Central Station the immediate availability of the Pocket PC - a brand new product which set the cornerstone for today's Windows Phones. Back in 2000, Microsoft President and CEO Steve Ballmer unveiled new Pocket PC designs from hardware partners like Casio, Compaq, Hewlett-Packard and Symbol. More than 60 companies showcased their Pocket PC solutions in the launch Partner Pavilion and executives from TD Waterhouse Investor Services Inc. and SAP AG joined Ballmer on stage to announce how they are using the new Pocket PCs in customer scenarios."

I had a mega-disaster of a day/evening (nothing serious, just the time-suck of things going wrong), so I'm late getting to this, but in my timezone at least, I just made it! ;-) Today is the 10 year anniversary of the Pocket PC, the first version of the devices we have today. Palm-sized PCs had a radically different user interface, so while they count in the general evolution of things, they don't have much in common with the Windows phones as we know them today. My friend and fellow MVP Arne Hess has a great write-up about this historic day ten years ago.

Windows phone 7 isn't here yet, but when it arrives later this year, it will represent a radical departure from Windows Mobile 6.5 devices...truly, the end of an era. For better or worse, Windows phone 7 is the future - and perhaps there's something fitting that it's coming out an even 10 years after the first Pocket PCs were released. 10 years is an eternity for an operating system, especially a mobile operating system, and I'm one of those people that believes Windows Mobile's "Best Before" date was reached around 2008. It's time to move into the future.

To help celebrate the 10 year anniversary of the Pocket PC, and to celebrate the launch/re-launch of Windows Phone Thoughts (yes, I'm late...), later this week I'm going to be giving away a few things I've been making arrangements for over the past couple of months. Nothing earth-shattering, but a device or two are in the mix thanks to HTC and AT&T. Watch for it!

And since this is a post about nostalgia...what was your first Pocket PC? And what did you think of it?