PDA? No way

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.globetechnology.com/servlet/ArticleNews/einsider/RTGAM/20021113/gteinov13/einsider//' target='_blank'>http://www.globetechnology.com/serv...ov13/einsider//</a><br /><br /></div>Jack Kapica, a writer for the Globe &amp; Mail (the Canadian Wall Street Journal), is a very brave man. This article on PDAs has some excellent points, and is worth the read.<br /><br />"Personal digital assistants, the pompous name for handheld computers, were supposed to transform the way e-business is done. They haven't. What happened?<br /><br />A scant 18 months ago, they were considered the hottest high-tech commodities on the market. Manufacturers were talking about selling them to "vertical markets," meaning enterprises that would issue PDAs to their employees, who would become more mobile (and presumably more productive) as a result. PDAs were supposed to take over from laptop computers. Employees would find them so easy to slip into their shirt pockets and to synchronize e-mail, addresses, appointments and other data that they were the natural inheritors of a glorious future of mobile business conducted by the always-on executive.<br /><br />Today, PDA makers are locked in a fight to the death. Prices are being slashed, and new manufacturers are producing brighter, cheaper and more powerful products. And yet the future seems no more certain than it ever was for e-business enabled with PDAs."<br /><br />There are a <a href="http://rtnews.globetechnology.com/servlet/ArticleNews/tech/RTGAM/20021115/gtpdaa/Technology/techBN/">huge number of responses</a> that are quite interesting to read.

[Mike Wagstaff]

I'm not an expert on corporations, but I can see a couple of reasons that seem obvious to me why PDA's haven't caught on...

1. Most office workers work in a (wait for it) office. If they're in a fixed location, there's no need to give them a PDA.

2. Those that are mobile generally already have laptops. Sure, they're less portable, but they're also more powerful into the bargain.

I'm not convinced by Microsoft's targeting of the corporate market. I reckon that a more consumer-oriented vision might be more profitable in the long run.

[Timothy Rapson]

I am a long time PDA lover and have dreamt of the day when everyone will carry one.

This year of flat sales has made me rethink my vision. The fact is, that when I take out my PDA people do not understand why I have it or what I am doing with it. They understand an MP3 player, a radio, a datebook/planner, GameBoy, or a cell phone. It is the PC features, word processing, storing files, or reading books that they don't get.

I am more and more thinking that even though the PDA should be the optimal device from which to create this total personal digital companion, it will probably be a cell phone that does it.

Why? Well, cell phones have a more attractive market/consumer market image and model than PDAs. You can get a color screen Motorola right now for $99. Everyone knows that the way they really make their money is the monthly fees, but it is just like buying a car. You don't pay cash and drive a hard bargain of the bottom line price. You buy by monthly payments. If they can spread the payments out forever (as the cell phones seem to be able to do) you can give anything away practically free and make the money in the long term.

So, a year from now with cell phones that do Word Processing, PIMS, Ebooks, and cameras, I wonder how anyone will sell any PDAs as we curently know them.

I hope I am wrong, because I really like PDAs and don't know if a cell phone (which I have practically no use for) will ever be as good a word processor (my basic PDA use) as a PDA is now or would be if it kept developing.

[jizmo]

Well, here's an "interesting" thought;

Every time I show my slick PPC to people in the business, they fall in love with the little fella http://koti.mbnet.fi/vgames/hymy/inloveylinlove.gif
and urge to get one after seeing how easily I accomplish all the tasks I used to do on a desktop -computer. You see, I'm one of those people, that don't even need a laptop. I draw my graphics (atleast the overall design) of PPC, I write my documents with it, use if for gaming while travelling etc.

Most people don't even know these devices exist. And those that know think that it's nothing but a pen and paper replacement (including me, earlier). So it's no wonder that PDA's haven't taken off big time in the industry.

Most people and companies just rush out and buy expensive laptops, when they might be better off accomplishing their tasks with a PPC.

/jizmo

[mookie123]

Most business applications hasn't been written yet, that's why. I am not talking about presentation or pocket word, but something like Customer inquiry, or industiral strength biling system with wireless etc...

The day business habit change, loosening up worker from the desk and let them running around loose with PDA to approach customer, make call, etc etc, instead of tied up infront of desktop will be the day PDA is irreplacable.

Everybody in the future will be just like that UPS delivery guy. Well okay some of us gona wear Armany suits and selling airplane engine instead, but same thing. you come to the customer and site with all your data.

[jizmo]

Most business applications hasn't been written yet,
that's why. I am not talking about presentation or pocket word, but something like Customer inquiry, or industiral strength biling system with wireless etc...

Good point, and true. But it's also important to bear in mind that many companies have tailored applications written just for their uses, and there shouldn't be any reason these spesific applications couldn't be ported to PPCs also.

I still think it's a question of people generally not knowing enough about the devices, that porting the software to them is quite easy and that they have enought processing power to run this software.

/jizmo

[krisbrown]

PDA's ae gimmicks, always will be in their present form, as for Micr@s@ft's OS, what business would hand out hardware to it's staff that loses all it's memory if they forget to charge it up.
This is to me the most ludicrous feature of the PPC, I have had it happen twice now. I can leave my pc for year and it SHOULD boot up no problem, why can't PPC's do this? It's not like they couldn't do it, they just chose to pass that reponsibility to us.
And don't get me started on there being no shutdown on individual programs, that is so utterley senseless that I'm embarrased to mention it to anyone when showing them my PPC.

I work for a very large telecoms company here in UK and they ordered thousands of those Panasonic toughbook mini labtops for field engineers, they NEVER get used, my friends has been in his house unopened for years.
(nice bit of kit,GSM connection built in).
'Show customers products' they said,
too slow, a brochure is better and can be left.
'Connect online for fault anylasis', again too slow, engineers use the phone instead.
They got stolen, locked up, batteries were always flat, old ladies couldn't see the screens, spent tens of thousands training staff to use them, all pointless, we have fallen back on the old tried and tested methods.
They were getiing stolen so often, that they actually told engineers not to use them outside of the office, that is no joke.

[mookie123]

'Show customers products' they said,
too slow, a brochure is better and can be left.
'Connect online for fault anylasis', again too slow, engineers use the phone instead.

of course you never going to replace nice glossy pring out, specially if your product depends on such thing (ie. fashion products)
but for something like dynamic wearhouse inquiry, quick data analysis, or if your engine product has 5000000 gazilion permutations that your customer need to know quickly if it is possible to be put together by next afternoon. How about twirling a 3D diagram or having a quick short movie presentation how the product is going to look like in use?

There is nothing like having a laptop/PDA with wireless and direct connection to main database.

how about contruction site? iPAQ can have instantenious GPS connection with CAD functionality. Now you can deliver those 200tons of iron beam at precise date and put it on the spot after that big storm delay that ruin the entire schedule.

Quick field report is another thing. Get a nice camera. take a picture of that mis-welding problem and send it to the engineering team so they can have preliminary review without going back and forth wasting time in the traffic jam.

cost: a cheap basic iPAQ cost$400 + whatever phone wireless connection. contrast to that ruggadized panasonic costing about $3K. Plus iPAQ has been used by smoke jumper fighting forest fire. How much tougher is your job compare to that?