Pocket PCs... are they Dead?

[Konrad]

I entered Circuit City yesterday, ready to put down some hard cold cash for a new Pocket PC. I wanted a new one. I deserved it.
And there I was, standing in front of the display rack, looking at this collection of PDAs. For the first time in my life, something shuffled inside me - the Pocket PCs were looking kind of boring.
Let me explain - I am a diehard Pocket PC man. I've been there from the beggining: 3600 series, dust problems, Pocket Quake, all the good (and the bad.) And I've always laughed at those black and white, low resolution Palms. I KNEW I had the made the right choice, buying that 500 dollar iPAQ.
Flash back to yesterday. Looking through the PDAs, there was so little to justify Microsoft's little shiny gadget. High resolution? Nope, that award goes to Palm. Fits in your pocket? Try stuffing a Toshiba in your pocket; a Tungsten, on the other hand, fits like butter. And the Pocket PCs are _expensive_. Don't get me wrong; I won't buy a Palm until the day I am dead. But I could not, in any way shape or form, imagine why someone would enter the store and decide to buy a Pocket PC when they had all these amazing Palm devices right there.

Microsoft doesn't know how much is riding on their new operating system. If they carry on through with this 'routine' upgrade, and OEMs don't release something that isn't a squarish rehash of the original iPAQ (only uglier), then all that hard earned market share will vanish. As will this vibrant community - Pocket PC thoughts, Pocketgamer, pocketpcpassion... their webmasters will purchase Palms and we'll all become strangers on the street again. No more iPAQs.

After two years of falling behind, Palm has simply done it better.

[davidspalding]

I can empathize with your data, doctor, but cannot accept your conclusions and predictions. Sites will shrivel up and the PPC will go the way of the Newton? Never.

Bill will never allow it.

[spursdude]

I do agree that Pocket PCs need to get moving and get going. BUT...

Have you taken a look at the iPaq 1910? I assume you have, but consider that it's $299, just about as tiny as (and maybe even thinner than) the Tungsten, and very smooth and rounded. That pretty much takes out most of your complaints...

And anyways, your idea that all the Pocket PC website webmasters will go get Palm OS devices just doesn't fly with me at all. Can I imagine Jason using a Palm? Or any other of the admins on this site? No. I can't.

But I do also hope Pocket PC 2003 rocks the house.

[Don't Panic!]

4 and 3 and 2 and 1, this topic is so old the Beastie Boys were young.

It's one thing to say PALM has some impressive devices. It's just shockjock troll bait to say "Pocket PCs... are they Dead?". Do you own one? Be truthful now. your IP is logged. :)

Don't Panic!
Bobby

[delfuhd]

True that pocket pc's may be more expensive, butt he user interface, the features, everything about it is soo much better than Palm, and even the size is being comparable these days too.. Pocket PC's are just for the 13373r man.

[dh]

I do kind of agree with some of your points, but I don't think that the retail store display is the best place to reach these conclusions.

There has certainly been a nice new range of POS devices coming to the market, from both Palm and Sony and these are certainly going to get a higher profile in a store. Palm devices still outsell PPC, and for someone looking for an electronic organiser with a few extra goodies, they are the way to go. I question whether most sales people in the stores have the knowledge or interest to explain the differences between the POS and PPC devices. Hey, if someone asks for a Palm get their money and onto the next customer!

Anyone serious about mobile devices is going to have done a lot of research up front (probably a lot on sites like this) and is not going to be concerned by what looks best on the shelf.

Remember as well that one of our top PPCs (both in specs and value) the Dell Axim is never seen in a retail display.

I certainly would love to see some innovation in the hardware design. My first choice would be a form factor like the Sony NX series. I also still have not decided if I want to end up with combined phone and PPC or two seperate devices.

[Unreal32]

The ONLY thing that I find compelling about the new Palms is the built-in thumbboard (which apparently they have done right by using "sticky" function and shift keys... a huge thing, even though it sounds small). Frankly, if I dropped the PPC I have today (an iPaq 3955) I would either be purchasing a 1910-type series, waiting for the new 2200 series, or looking at a Dell. Unless of course someone comes out with a thumbboard model PPC!

[Hyperluminal]

Konrad, I know what you mean, but I don't really think it's as dire as you say.
Still, look at the situation. The Palm platform has really caught up to PPC: Screen- higher res on Palm; memory- 64MB on Palm, currently the same as PPC; processor- 400 MHz XScale, same as PPC; both have WiFi, both have BT. Sure, all Palms don't have these features, but now it's just a matter of time. And Palm devices now just seem to be more innovative. From the Tungsten T to the Sony NX70, to the Zire 71, to the TG50's simple flip top, there's just more creativity of design than on the Pocket PC side right now.

Right now, in my opinion, the PPC's biggest advantage is its OS. The Pocket PC OS is simply more advanced than Palm OS, in almost every way. Despite whatever advances in hardware POS may make, it doesn't really matter because of PPC's more advanced OS. But Palm is going to release POS 6 early next year, which may, possibly, bring it on par with PPC in terms of software. If they can do that, and keep their current HW advantage (if only in terms of sheer features), then Palm will have caught up.

What really worries me is devices like the iPaq 5555, if what we know about it is true. Look at it, its only improvements are 128 MB of RAM and a PXA255 CPU. The PXA255 of course wasn't even HP's choice to use, since Intel discontinued the PXA250 in late March. So their only real advance is the 128 MB of RAM, which is kind of unimportant because a memory card can easily make up for 64 MB of RAM. And until there are more (or any?) SDIO peripherals, the need for more internal memory on the one-slot iPaq won't really be important anyway. And I know that HP's supposed to release the 1945 and 2200 too, but they're incremential improvments. Right now, I think Pocket PC needs to leapfrog Palm OS, not stay behind or even just "catch up".

Palm is no longer using simplicity as an excuse to not innovate; they're beating Pocket PC at its own game. Even if PPC has some HW benefits now, how many of them will be eroded by the end of the year if they don't do anything?

And don't get me wrong, I'm a loyal Pocket PC user and fan. I've had two Pocket PCs (iPaq 3600, 3835), a Palm-size PC (Casio E100), and long before that an original HPC (Casio A11). I really like Pocket PC, and like how they didn't just go along with Palm's "simplicity" and "zen" and stuck to their original ideas. But I hate to see them not innovate, considering that's exactly what got them where they are now.