For context, that's around the time I entered University. I bought an HP48S calculator ($200 canadian), which I spent so much time on, it used 3 AAA batteries which would last for months. There was a whole hacking community around it, someone even ported pacman to it. It helped me out during exams, because I was able to write programs for it that would for example calculate eigenvalues of matrices. I remember when I was at the place that I bought the HP48, the guy behind the counter was showing off his Apple Newton. Who would have thought what would materialize nearly 20 years later (IPhone). About 10 years later I remember playing with the Compaq Ipaq, that too failed to gain mass adoption. It took a while to find the right formula that would allow mass adoption.