Someday technological historians will debate the moment when the ubiquitous wireless phone ceased being just a phone and began taking on the trappings of other devices, thus acquiring even greater cultural significance.
Opinions will no doubt differ. In two notable cases, companies known primarily for non-phone communications devices evolved to incorporate voice features.
Research In Motion's BlackBerry was born as a pager-like device that provided access to e-mail, but later added the ability to make conventional voice calls. Meanwhile, Palm's Treo -- a device first launched by Palm's sibling company Handspring -- emerged from the ecosystem created by the PalmPilot, the first commercially successful personal digital assistant and corporate status symbol of the mid-1990s.
But these future historians will all be able to agree that by the year 2006, the wireless phone and PDA had completed the first stages of their evolutionary marriage. The result: A plethora of devices that provide a wide range of features and capabilities, from connecting to corporate e-mail
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