Skoobouy
10-10-2003, 09:11 AM
I had a nice big coffee. So, I must write. :)
I sold my Jornada 567 in May or June and I haven't had one since. Further, I'm basically restrained from buying a new one until I go home this Christmas. I'm really excited to see all of the new models coming out, and I've narrowed my decision to two (or three) machines. My priorities are size, speed (with emulation in mind), battery, and wireless.
So, uh, should I get an h4155 with an extended battery or a MyPal A620BT with a combination memory+Wifi card? The choice is so difficult it threatens to make my head explode.
But I also wanted to do some analysis too. Many moons ago journalists and analysts were predicting the doom of the non-wireless PDA, and at that time I was skeptical. Well, whether customers wanted it or not, it turned out to be true. Everything $300 and above has got WiFi or BT or both. Not to mention the veritable explosion of cell-phone options: from two (the Audiovox Thera and XDA) to, well, a whole bunch. Not to mention the increased use of VoIP.
Another big change is size. Whereas before the distinction was fuzzy, it seems now that business and consumer models can be distinguished by size. On the one hand, you have the big'uns (sleevable iPaqs, dual-slot Toshibas, Axim X5s, and the Loox) and the littl'uns (the Toshiba e3xx's Viewsonics, Axim X3, MyPal, and the king of small, the iPaq 1900/4100s). One interesting reversal is that the littl'uns now tend to be the cheaper units--most folks can remember that, once, where features were stable, price was inversely proportional to size. See: Palm V vs. Palm III in their heyday. Now, if a machine is big, it's ususally by necessity due to being feature-packed, thus making it a business model. Dual wireless + dual slots + 3.8" screen + a surplus of buttons = big'un.
Other important changes: the speed revolution that came from two simultaneous developments: the PXA 255 and WM2k3. Add to these also the unweeped-for death of the side-lit reflective screen. Also the death of the removable coin-cell backup battery, the death of the flip cover ( :( ), the scroll wheel, and the increasing scarcity of Compact Flash slots.
Yes, despite complaints to the contrary, the Pocket PC is a completely different animal now than the PPC2k2 generation (Casio e200, Jornada 560, iPaq 3800, Toshiba Genio e570) or the PXA 250 generation (Loox 600, iPaq 3900, Toshiba e740).
I'm usually skeptical of linear predictions, but here's mine: We're GOING to see VGA, of this I have almost no doubt. It'll be sloppy at first, but eventually it'll cut out the fat and be nearly as useable as today's screens. I think we'll see flip covers again--OEMs can't be blind to our complaints forever, after all. I think that "dual slots" will eventually mean "dual SD" rather than SD+CF. WiFi+BT will eventually be standard, as per competition with the iPaq h4000 and h5000 series. I predict the relative lack of success of the h4355, and hence new and more creative implementations of the thumb keyboard. (Possibly even a 480x480 screen). As long as 320x240 screens survive, so will 64MB PPCs. Higher res screens will change all that though.
I don't know enough about converged devices, but since polls are usually split down the middle in their favor, I imagine the market will be the same. Pure PPCs will live for some time yet, and phone integration will always be something of an expensive option, at least until machines like the XDA II get down into the $400 range new.
It's a happy time to be a PPC fan. :)
I sold my Jornada 567 in May or June and I haven't had one since. Further, I'm basically restrained from buying a new one until I go home this Christmas. I'm really excited to see all of the new models coming out, and I've narrowed my decision to two (or three) machines. My priorities are size, speed (with emulation in mind), battery, and wireless.
So, uh, should I get an h4155 with an extended battery or a MyPal A620BT with a combination memory+Wifi card? The choice is so difficult it threatens to make my head explode.
But I also wanted to do some analysis too. Many moons ago journalists and analysts were predicting the doom of the non-wireless PDA, and at that time I was skeptical. Well, whether customers wanted it or not, it turned out to be true. Everything $300 and above has got WiFi or BT or both. Not to mention the veritable explosion of cell-phone options: from two (the Audiovox Thera and XDA) to, well, a whole bunch. Not to mention the increased use of VoIP.
Another big change is size. Whereas before the distinction was fuzzy, it seems now that business and consumer models can be distinguished by size. On the one hand, you have the big'uns (sleevable iPaqs, dual-slot Toshibas, Axim X5s, and the Loox) and the littl'uns (the Toshiba e3xx's Viewsonics, Axim X3, MyPal, and the king of small, the iPaq 1900/4100s). One interesting reversal is that the littl'uns now tend to be the cheaper units--most folks can remember that, once, where features were stable, price was inversely proportional to size. See: Palm V vs. Palm III in their heyday. Now, if a machine is big, it's ususally by necessity due to being feature-packed, thus making it a business model. Dual wireless + dual slots + 3.8" screen + a surplus of buttons = big'un.
Other important changes: the speed revolution that came from two simultaneous developments: the PXA 255 and WM2k3. Add to these also the unweeped-for death of the side-lit reflective screen. Also the death of the removable coin-cell backup battery, the death of the flip cover ( :( ), the scroll wheel, and the increasing scarcity of Compact Flash slots.
Yes, despite complaints to the contrary, the Pocket PC is a completely different animal now than the PPC2k2 generation (Casio e200, Jornada 560, iPaq 3800, Toshiba Genio e570) or the PXA 250 generation (Loox 600, iPaq 3900, Toshiba e740).
I'm usually skeptical of linear predictions, but here's mine: We're GOING to see VGA, of this I have almost no doubt. It'll be sloppy at first, but eventually it'll cut out the fat and be nearly as useable as today's screens. I think we'll see flip covers again--OEMs can't be blind to our complaints forever, after all. I think that "dual slots" will eventually mean "dual SD" rather than SD+CF. WiFi+BT will eventually be standard, as per competition with the iPaq h4000 and h5000 series. I predict the relative lack of success of the h4355, and hence new and more creative implementations of the thumb keyboard. (Possibly even a 480x480 screen). As long as 320x240 screens survive, so will 64MB PPCs. Higher res screens will change all that though.
I don't know enough about converged devices, but since polls are usually split down the middle in their favor, I imagine the market will be the same. Pure PPCs will live for some time yet, and phone integration will always be something of an expensive option, at least until machines like the XDA II get down into the $400 range new.
It's a happy time to be a PPC fan. :)