It’s remarkable how a concept can stick around for decades waiting on an implementation that’s good enough to be viable.
Instead of trying to think of new things it’s perhaps better to go read tech magazines of prior decades finding failed ideas and trying to breathe new life into them.
Although the pen allowed a lot of fun games. There was a tennis one I really enjoyed.
Built and sold several applications for it as well, so easy to develop for as well.
Hell you couldn't even install apps when the iPhone came out, so if you were using what was at least 5 year old technology it's no wonder you found the iPhone to be a better experience.
I bet you think the iPhone was better than the Newton too eh? Kudos on flying to SF instead of just having one shipped to you.
https://mako.cc/copyrighteous/tribute-to-the-seiko-messagewa...
Back before cell phones were ubiquitous that was pretty novel. I remember being struck by how cool it was to step off the plane in Taipei and see it update to local time while I watched. Getting pages about server downtime using the email gateway was also a nice way not to lug a pager around.
The system didn't outlive Y2K, however, and since it was clear where the market was going they simply shut it down rather than fix the Y2K bugs.