The technical advances were not enough though. There also had to be a confluence of culture with the technology to make the device acceptable to people who would other- wise not use a computer. Several other devices have been in use for a while now that are waiting for the right events to happen at the right time. Pagers and cell phones are computing devices that have become a part of many people's lives. They are both radio receivers, and many pagers are transmitters too.
Flash memory is cheap, and so is digital signal processing.
It could be text or it could be voice. The display would have to become more sophisticated so that better text messages could be shown. The bigger question is how soon before the communications device merges with the information device. The new Palm VII is certainly the first of many steps along the way. At the confluence will be a programmable, adaptable, and truly useful computing device.