I remember the modest hype around these devices. The hardware was made by an acquired company called Danger, who previously made the very popular Sidekick phone

I remember the modest hype around these devices. The hardware was made by an acquired company called Danger, who previously made the very popular Sidekick phone that had a keyboard and was popular towards the end of the era before real smartphones (I mean before iPhone 1). It was dead on arrival in part because it used a custom OS based on windows CE, since this preceded Windows Phone. This, and the prolonged death of Windows Mobile ultimately distracted from and undermined Windows Phone, which was actually legitimately impressive. It’s a shame we didn’t get a third OS competitor in the mobile ecosystem.