That's a rather strange article.
Quote:
What are the most important PDA features for business users?
Michael Gartenberg: First and foremost, for both consumers and business users, voice capability is the most important feature. Any mobile strategy that does not include voice is going to be doomed. One reason that many converged devices don't sell is because they have lousy phones. We also found that people are happy to carry more than one device, so vendors don't need to keep building everything into a single device.
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He starts off here saying that all PDAs have to be phones, then ends saying that people are happy to carry seperate devices. Duh!
Quote:
What are the biggest problems that your research uncovered?
Gartenberg: There are always trade-offs. If you want a large screen on a device, then you can't have a small device that users will always carry around. If you add wireless connectivity to a PDA, then you can't get 14 hours of battery life. Too many manufacturers are chasing after too many features. They are ignoring core functions and are converging features onto single devices, rather than making sure that devices can work together.
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The only manufacturer that went 100% converged was Handspring. Everyone else is happily selling PDAs.
Quote:
Which mobile operating systems are the best?
Gartenberg: Different operating systems are better for different functions. If you are focused on wireless e-mail access, then it's going to be Research in Motion (RIM) or Danger. For core PIM functions, it's Palm. Right now, Palm and [Microsoft's] Pocket PC are trending towards each other. Pocket PC is working to adopt the elegance and simplicity that Palm is known for, and Palm is moving towards more features, multimedia and [the] higher-end processors of the Pocket PC.
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With Pocket Informant, my PPC has better PIM capabilities than my desktop, let alone a Palm.
To think people get paid for coming up with this stuff.