Dell and their Pocket PCs

[Philip Colmer]

Given that Dell don't appear to have made an official announcement regarding upgrades (or the lack of) to Windows 2003 SE for their Axim range, I thought I'd ask our account manager.

I'm not going to quote his reply verbatim, but the gist of it was that:

* No, there isn't going to be an update

* PDAs are classed as consumer devices; technology changes more rapidly

* Average lifecycle guideline is 12 months

This last point came because I explicitly asked him how long they think their customers are expecting to keep a device. At work, we keep desktop PCs for three years, laptops for two.

I guess I need to start working on my boss to replace my PDA every year. I suppose it is cheap enough but it will be a tough sell.

--Philip

[KimVette]

They never advertised their PPCs as being upgradable to future OSes, so there is no loss there, and no threat of losing customers over not meeting expectations.

[acollet]

I think people get to hung up on the upgrades for Pocket PC/Palm devices. I also agree with Dell. The lifespan of a PDA is aobut 12 months (Just dont let my wife see that .. that'll kill my lifespan schedule) :-)

[jbachandouris]

I think people get to hung up on the upgrades for Pocket PC/Palm devices. I also agree with Dell. The lifespan of a PDA is aobut 12 months (Just dont let my wife see that .. that'll kill my lifespan schedule) :-)

I can totally relate...I hid my 4155 from her for at least a month to keep the peace.

BTW we seem to be neighbors. I rarely meet a Pocket PC/Palm user in these parts....

[SteveHoward999]

I think people get to hung up on the upgrades for Pocket PC/Palm devices. I also agree with Dell. The lifespan of a PDA is aobut 12 months (Just dont let my wife see that .. that'll kill my lifespan schedule) :-)


I disagree. I have a Toshiba e750 that is more than a year old. I use it for several hours each day, so I consider myself to be a fairly heavy user, although I don't push it as hard as a real fanatic would ... I have a laptop for that ;-)

I see no need to upgrade it at all yet - all I am missing from newer machines are some minor OS updates, some memory (but only the top-of-the-range devices), a little processor speed and VGA screen. I would love to have an e800 for the screen, but, given its price, the upgrade is not compelling enough to make me upgrade yet. I am sure I can hold out at least until after Christmas - perhaps longer - until there are some devices available that are more significant upgrades.

IMHO the rate of change in OS and features on the PPC devices is simply not fast enough for me to justify upgrading anually.

Steve

[PetiteFlower]

Well their new devices are sold with SE. But I'm guessing that they don't think SE is a big enough upgrade from original to make an upgrade worth buying to enough people to offset the cost of developing it. Do people really think this is a big deal? Lots of people don't upgrade after a year but after 2 years I think most people have replaced their device. I'm going on more then a year and a half with my X5 and it's certainly feeling its age....the backlight isn't as bright and the battery life isn't as long as when I first got it, I'll be ready to upgrade soon :) But I didn't buy the last upgrade and I'm not interested in this one....when I get a new machine I'll get a new OS. That's good enough for me--and I think that a lot of Dell customers are value-oriented like I am and don't feel the need to have the cutting edge as much as the most features for our money--so an OS upgrade would have to offer some MAJOR plusses in functionality to be worth paying for!

[Sven Johannsen]

* Average life guideline is 12 months

This last point came because I explicitly asked him how long they think their customers are expecting to keep a device.

That's interesting considering Dell offers three year warranty extensions. From an economics point of view that means they think the device will actually last longer than the owner will keep it. Good business selling something you don't think will get used ;)

I think people forget to separate how long they can effectively use a particular PPC, vs how long an OEM can sell that model. There are still folks using 3600 iPAQs and Jornadas, but if Compaq/HP were still trying to sell them they'd be boo'd for not progressing. Technology moves fast and the OEMs must produce newer models to stay competitive in the consumer's eyes. Given that , they certainly can't keep selling the 'old' ones. Who would buy them? Well, I for one would buy a WM2003SE, dual slot, 624MHz, WiFi, BT, 128M RAM PPC in a Jornada body, but I'm weird. Most would look at it and say same old, same old.

In this arena you just have to get used to the idea that things change quickly, but it is up to you if you have to change as fast.

[SteveHoward999]

I think people forget to separate how long they can effectively use a particular PPC, vs how long an OEM can sell that model. There are still folks using 3600 iPAQs and Jornadas, but if Compaq/HP were still trying to sell them they'd be boo'd for not progressing. Technology moves fast and the OEMs must produce newer models to stay competitive in the consumer's eyes. Given that , they certainly can't keep selling the 'old' ones. Who would buy them?

Good question. Who is still buying the e750s that Toshiba are still selling? ;-)

I understand your point, and actually want to totally agree with you, but what you say and what I see do not match up.


Steve

[Sven Johannsen]

Good question. Who is still buying the e750s that Toshiba are still selling? ;-)
Steve

Beats me. When I go to Toshiba's site I see e800s for $599 and e400s for $299. They don't seem to be selling e750s. Not to say they aren't available to buy. You can still buy a brand new HP 5555 at MobilePlanet too, just not at HPShopping, and you won't see them at HP.com either if you are looking for a new PPC. As far as who is buying PPCs that the OEM no longer markets? Shoot, there are always folks who want one for one reason or other, or just aren't informed about the new ones, or the limitations of the old ones.

The OEM that stretches my point is Dell, still selling X5s. With dual slots and a 400MHz processor though, it still fits a niche that the X3 and X30 don't fill. When Dell produces a dual slot WM2003SE box, maybe with VGA, maybe optional radio configs, the X5 is history.

[SteveHoward999]

Beats me. When I go to Toshiba's site I see e800s for $599 and e400s for $299. They don't seem to be selling e750s.


Oops - my mistake. Last I looked on the USA site ( about 3 or 4 weeks ago??) they were still selling it. I see it is still for sale in the UK though

http://uk.computers.toshiba-europe.com/cgi-bin/ToshibaCSG/model_index_page.jsp?service=UK&ID=11671

It's not like there is a significant price advantage in the older machines either ... in fact they are more expensive than the E800 :-O Notice, though, that Toshiba UK is linking to resellers, and not selling on-line as the USA site does (did?).


Steve

[nuka_t]

im still using(not much though, and im going to get an X30 in a 3-5 bussiness days) a hitachi hpc from 1999. it survived y2k :wink: and 4 years after that. it is still fully functional. sure, windows ce 2 isnt anything compared to 2k3se, but that dosent mean it dosent do what it was sold to do. and really it can do lots of stuff like:

all the office capabilities of current ppc's, except this had a keyboard too.

voice recorder and speaker(no headphone jack though)

256 color VGA screen

it can surf the web using the builtin dialup modem, or you can add wifi(although i dont think its supported by the OS) or ehternet adapters in the compact flash slot.

PIM

ive played some wavs on it, but multimedia capabilities arent matured yet

i can play solitaire.

so really, it dosent matter if a PDA is 5days old or 5 years old, it still does what it was sold to do, and i have never updated any software on this thing(mostly cause i couldnt find any support from hitachi).

the best part about this hpc was that it cost 200 bucks. 8O

i wish i can score that deal again.

i really hope that i can install windows mobile 2004 on my new x30 though, but i dont think dell can get away with not having an upgrade option this time, as 2k4 is going to be MAJOR, and they cant say 64mb of rom is too little. you can fit windows xp on a little more than that if you tried reallyl hard.

i feel bad for the x3i owners though, as they couldnt update their devices. i htink that hte X5 and the X30 are the handhelds to get, until the X7 or the X1 are released.

maybe i should have waited for VGA screens, but i wanted a ppc really badly. it probably wouldnt make much difference though as i wont have enough memory to put 640x480 movies on it anyway.