Fujitsu PoqetPad Read Me First!

The Fujitsu PoqetPad Read Me First! is the quick-start and registration insert that shipped inside the PoqetPad package, published by Fujitsu Personal Systems, Inc. in June 1992.¹ The folded card asked the new owner to confirm that everything in the box had arrived safely, to read its performance and battery-life tips, and to complete the enclosed User Registration card before operating the computer.² Returning the card placed the owner on the company's "FPS Preferred" mailing list and, the insert explained, helped Fujitsu develop future super-portable computers.³

The PoqetPad itself was a 1.2-pound, hand-held MS-DOS pen computer that Poqet Computer Corp. introduced in January 1992 at the Pen Computer User Conference in Baltimore, where it became the first pen computer to license GRiD Systems' PenRight! software as an option above its DOS-shell environment.⁴ By February 1992 it carried a suggested U.S. retail price of $1,995, with the optional PenRight! environment priced at $145 and R2Z's padBase development tools at $695.⁵ Production units began shipping to vertical-market developers and corporate accounts on April 30, 1992 — the only MS-DOS pen-based system then priced under $2,000 — bundled with the Nestor PenShell environment and NestorWriter handwriting-recognition software.⁶

On June 1, 1992, Fujitsu Ltd. announced the formation of Fujitsu Personal Systems, Inc., a Santa Clara company of roughly 150 employees created through its purchase of Poqet Computer Corp.⁷ The new subsidiary continued to sell the Poqet line, including the PoqetPad, and the following day agreed to resell Brightbill-Roberts' HyperPAD development tools for building pen applications on the machine.⁸

Inside the box, the Read Me First! enumerated the full PoqetPad package — the computer, a handstrap and wriststrap, two stylus pens and a tether, the PoqetPad User's Guide and a Quick Reference card, two AA alkaline batteries, serial-number bar-code stickers, and a Business Reply Mail envelope.⁹ It explained that the bar-coded serial-number stickers corresponded to an electronic identification number held in the computer's memory, so a registered PoqetPad could be matched to its owner even if lost or stolen.¹⁰ The card's operating notes identified the left and right PC-card slots as drives A and B and the system ROM — which held the pen-recognition software and MS-DOS — as drive C.¹¹ Fujitsu Personal Systems recommended alkaline batteries, warned that the PoqetPad preserved internal data for only ninety seconds once the batteries were removed, and backed the computer with a limited one-year warranty.¹²

AI generated using primary sources referenced in the footnotes