aha! InkWriter Version 1.01 for PenPoint (Package)

aha! InkWriter Version 1.01 for PenPoint is the original retail package for the first product released by aha! software corporation, an applications-software company founded in early 1991 and based in Mountain View, California.¹ The company operated from offices at 1685 Plymouth Street.²

aha! announced InkWriter on June 14, 1993 as the first product in its InkProcessor line, presenting it as the first software to let users of pen-based computers, personal communicators, and personal digital assistants edit and search handwritten words in the form of electronic ink without first translating them into computer text; it was built on aha!'s patent-pending SmartInk technology, which let handwriting be erased, highlighted, italicized, or reflowed with a few strokes of the pen.³ The initial release ran on the PenPoint operating system from GO Corporation on both the 386/486 and Hobbit families of microprocessors — the Hobbit being the low-power RISC chip used in the AT&T/EO Personal Communicators — and carried a $249 suggested retail price ahead of a July 1993 ship date.⁴ The application disk packaged in this product is labeled Version 1.01 for the PenPoint Operating System on 386/486 and Hobbit and carries a 1993 aha! software corporation copyright.⁵

The product arrived as AT&T, GO Corporation, and EO were assembling an open platform around the Hobbit microprocessor and the PenPoint operating system. In November 1992, AT&T Microelectronics announced broad industry support for Hobbit, naming aha! software corporation among the application developers building productivity software for Hobbit-based personal communicators.⁶ In October 1993, EO and the top five PenPoint independent software vendors — aha! among them — began a six-city national seminar tour for the AT&T/EO Personal Communicator, where InkWriter was presented as a note-taking, word-processing, and drawing utility.⁷

aha! extended InkWriter well beyond PenPoint over the following two years. The company released aha! InkWriter for Windows in June 1994,⁸ shipped a version for Sony's Magic Link and other Magic Cap-based personal communicators,⁹ and arranged for the software to ship with Fujitsu's Stylistic 500 tablet computer.¹⁰ In April 1996, Microsoft Corporation announced a definitive agreement to acquire aha! software corporation.¹¹

The package describes InkWriter as a critically acclaimed, must-have application for writing and drawing with a pen computer or personal communicator, and carries the product's tagline, “the simplicity of pen and paper, the power of word processing.”¹² This particular copy is marked “For evaluation purposes only. NOT FOR RESALE.” on its spine.¹³

AI generated using primary sources referenced in the footnotes