Writing off the keyboard: Mary Fagan on a little helper that can be called up at the touch of a pen

FIRST THERE was the desktop computer. Too big for the train and plane, so the portable was born. Too big for the pocket, so along came the palmtop. But if you're going that small, who needs a keyboard? Enter, please, the Personal Digital Assistant.

The PDA has been hailed as the next blockbuster product for the computer generation. Without a keyboard to tap, users handwrite messages on touch-sensitive screens. The PDA then stores information and re-displays it when required as neat text. It will, if the gurus of the industry are to be believed, transform the lives of even those who thought (or hoped) that the computer era had passed them by.

The plastic pen is the key. Point here and call up the calculator. Point there and access the diary where you have just scribbled your dinner date. Most PDAs will include fax capabilities and some provide radio communications, allowing users to send electronic messages or load information into another computer. There are also plans for plug-in electronic cards that could enable the PDA to translate notes into other languages or turn it into an intelligent road or rail guide. The applications - assuming the technology takes off - are seemingly endless, limited only by the imagination of software developers.

There are certainly some impressive names on the starting grid. Apple is on the front row, unveiling plans for its Newton pen-based computer. The Newton, due out within a few months, has already been pipped at the post by the Pen Pad from Amstrad. EO, a start-up involving AT&T, Olivetti and Matsushita is trialling a PDA product in the US. Other companies lining up to take their place in the market include the mighty IBM and Motorola, the US electronics and communications giant. Philips of the Netherlands and Tandy are also among those expected to announce plans for the PDA sector.

Some industry analysts believe the pen-based computing market will be worth pounds 11.9bn by 1996. But the key issue is whether consumers want what the technologists and marketing men are desperate to get them to buy.

Palmtops - or hand-held organisers - have in the past met with limited success. They can be a bore to use. Users must tap in information on a tiny keyboard and rely on a limited display, often a few lines, to scroll through files. Whether the pen-based versions appeal to anyone other than natural computer buffs remains to be seen.

The PDA marketing hype kicks off with the notion that these little devices - some are smaller than a filofax - are more like a friendly and competent helper than a machine. However, to be properly used, the machines have to understand the user's handwriting and that, in technology terms, is no mean feat.

With the Amstrad machine, on the market next month, each device needs to be trained to understand the user's handwriting so that his or her scrawl can be converted into text and stored away in the address book, diary or relevant file. Training means writing the entire alphabet (upper and lower case) into individual letter 'boxes' on using the PDA for the first time. As the machine needs to keep learning over time, the same boxes are used for in- putting information in normal use, although users can store and recall electronic 'pages' of their natural handwriting and drawings as well.

Most PDAs are likely to involve similar training, although the degree of sophistication may vary widely. Apple's Newton is expected to be more technologically advanced than the Amstrad Pen Pad, and allows users to write much as they would normally, rather than in boxes.

Apple also says that 'recognizers' can be developed to understand musical and scientific notation. The question is whether Apple can bring prices to the level needed to attract consumers. Amstrad believes it has priced the PDA correctly at about pounds 300. Dennis Exton, an analyst with Merrill Lynch, says the key will be getting quality products at the pounds 80- pounds 100 level.

The idea of training could also be a drawback. You can't pick up someone's machine and have a go. Nor can you walk into a shop, have a practice and take the plunge. However, computer companies seem to think that the benefit of having no keyboard to contend with will outweigh that. Malcolm Miller, Amstrad's sales and marketing director compares the PDA with a child. 'You train it and over time it learns how you write. It's something personal. It transforms your scrawl into the printed form.'

Newton, according to Apple, is a hand-held device that 'intelligently assists the user to capture, organise and communicate information'. John Sculley, Apple's chairman, foresees a dollars 3.5bn industry spawned by the PDA concept. According to Mr Sculley, the combination of communications, computers, consumer electronics and intuition could mean that PDA sales overtake those of personal computers.

Newton takes user-friendliness beyond the recognition of handwriting. A trained device will know that if lunch is scribbled in it is likely to be at a certain hour and last for a certain period, and will store the information accordingly. If the message scribbled on the screen includes a telephone number, the Newton will recognise it as such and file it where it ought to be.

Apple's target customer will initially be the business person who needs to be organised. However, the Newton will be manufactured under licence by other companies for the home consumer.

AT&T of the US has a vision of the PDA as a cellular telephone with built-in 'pen computers' - a means of offering mobile communications and quite a lot more. Either way, the hope is that computer and communications technology will suddenly become attractive to those who, until now, have been happy with paper diary and notebook, and a standard telephone.

Mr Exton believes that PDAs will be a mass market product, but probably not for a few years. 'It is not radical - it's an evolution that incorporates most of the advances in hardware of the last five years.' The key to success is likely to be consistency in the software used by the product manufacturers. Already, large companies are endorsing software from a US start-up, General Magic, that will allow PDAs to exchange information.