The HTC Wallaby name may be unfamiliar, but this early
smartphone is perhaps more familiar as the O2 XDA, Qtek 1100, Siemens
SX56, T-Mobile MDA or any one of several other carrier or OEM branded
names.
Despite the unfamiliar name, the Wallaby was a significant device
that was very influential on smartphone development in the years
after its launch 10 years ago in 2002.
The Wallaby marked the transition from standalone PDAs to the
modern smartphone. Back in 2002, the name smartphone actually meant
a slightly different class of device.. the HTC Wallaby was considered
to be a “wireless PDA” instead. The operating system was a straight
development from Windows CE which was Microsoft’s PDA offering,
with a user interface very much like a shrunk down version of Windows
98.
PDAs had been around for a while before the Wallaby came out,
notably the Compaq iPAQ (also built by HTC) and the PalmPilot. But
these devices were extremely limited in their functionality - basically
you could synchronise calendar events and contacts with your PC,
run a few simple apps and perhaps download a copy of your mailbox..and
that was about it. The Wallaby allowed you to read email on the
go, access the web and (of course) make phone calls, all without
needing to connect it to a PC at all.
Despite
being 10 years old, the Wallaby is still somewhat usable as a smartphone.
There’s a 3.5” 240 x 320 pixel resistive touchscreen display, a
400 MHz processor, 64MB of RAM, a memory card slot (for an SD card)
and GPRS data. There’s no 3G support, WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth or even
a camera, but all the basic functions are here.
The user interface doesn’t look much like a modern smartphone,
but if you’re used to a PC then you won’t have many problems. One
shock with pre-iPhone devices such as the Wallaby is having to use
scroll bars to move up and down through a long page, and the fairly
basic resistive display isn’t nearly as responsive as a modern capacitive
screen. And this really is a stylus-only interface too, the controls
are just too small to use with a finger.
It’s quite a heavy device, coming in at about 200 grams and measuring
129 x 73 x 18mm (if you ignore the external antenna). At the time
the Wallaby was a huge device, but many modern smartphones have
a similar footprint, so today it doesn’t look quite so big.
If you wanted one of these SIM free in 2002 then you would certainly
have to had deep pockets, as the Wallably cost in the region of
€1000 or £650 at the time, roughly comparable in price to
a top-spec iPhone today.
Released
2002 
Despite
being 10 years old, the Wallaby is still somewhat usable as a smartphone.
There’s a 3.5” 240 x 320 pixel resistive touchscreen display, a
400 MHz processor, 64MB of RAM, a memory card slot (for an SD card)
and GPRS data. There’s no 3G support, WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth or even
a camera, but all the basic functions are here.
