Pocket PC's critical next step

[Jason Dunn]

<a href="http://www.brighthand.com/newsite/ppc/views/nextstep.html">http://www.brighthand.com/newsite/ppc/views/nextstep.html</a><br /><br />Brighthand weighs in on the Pocket PC and what's it's done in the past two years. Somehow it felt more impressive being in the thick of it... :-)<br /><br />"Today marks the second anniversary of the launch of Microsoft's handheld computing platform, Pocket PC. But in truth it's been at the handheld game a lot longer than that. Microsoft's handheld computing days stretch way back to the early 1990's, when it began work on a couple of internal projects, codenamed Pulsar and WinPad (see Timeline below). Although it was more focused on creating an embedded operating system for set-tops boxes at the time, there was a small group of Microsoft engineers with their eye on handheld computers. The embedded OS they eventually came up with, Windows CE, is still with us, and although it's had its share of up and downs it remains the heart of Pocket PC."

[zylark]

This is a question of popularity. We all know the PPC beats Palm handsdown technology wise.

Unfortunately *good* does not always mean huge sales. Take the Amiga. Great product, appaling sales (or marketing?)...

However I think that the more consumers demand more functionality from their devices, the more they will look to the more versatile product. The Pocket PC in the case of PDAs!

Me, I laugh in the face of the pathetic Palm owners. Take a look at my iPAQ you blind idiots :)

[marlof]

"The other card that Microsoft and its manufacturing partners hope to play is the convergence card. Microsoft's Pocket PC Phone Edition platform enables device makers to create new Pocket PCs that double as cellphones. Whether there is a market for this remains to be seen, however, it's unlikely that consumers or businesses will want to foot two cellphone bills."

That's the big advantage of a dual sim service: two sets of hardware, one telephone number, one bill. :)