Top 10 PDA Failures [Archive] - Thoughts Media Forums

PatrickD

01-21-2005, 03:21 PM

Here is a link to an article that lists the top 10 PDA failures.

http://mlagazine.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=133&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

I am not sure I agree completely with the list. They list the "palm PC" as number 4. This eventually evolved into the pocket pc, which I would consider successful :wink: . What do you folks think? What are some of the biggest failures?

Paragon

01-21-2005, 03:52 PM

I am not sure I agree completely with the list.

I'm not sure I agree either. shouldn't the rz1715 occupy all of the top 5 spots at least. ;)

Dave

Steven Cedrone

01-21-2005, 04:01 PM

The Rex was cool! I stil have mine and it still works! Great for quick lookups! But what was really cool about it: you could slip in your PCMCIA slot to update it!

PatrickD

01-21-2005, 04:03 PM

I am not sure I agree completely with the list.

I'm not sure I agree either. shouldn't the rz1715 occupy all of the top 5 spots at least. ;)

Dave

:rotfl:

Good point! Maybe they weren't including current models. If they were, I am sure some palm users would like to see the T5 on the list.

Paragon

01-21-2005, 04:07 PM

Yeah, I think you are right Patrick. As well I'll bet there are armies of Newton lovers out there frothing at the mouth seeing their baby in the number one slot. ;)

Dave

Fishie

01-21-2005, 04:08 PM

I am not sure I agree completely with the list.

I'm not sure I agree either. shouldn't the rz1715 occupy all of the top 5 spots at least. ;)

Dave

Hey, you stole that from palm infocenter, only there it was the T5

Menneisyys

01-21-2005, 04:12 PM

Here is a link to an article that lists the top 10 PDA failures.

http://mlagazine.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=133&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

I am not sure I agree completely with the list. They list the "palm PC" as number 4. This eventually evolved into the pocket pc, which I would consider successful :wink: . What do you folks think? What are some of the biggest failures?

I wouldn't call the HP 200LX a failure either, because there were no subsequent HDD-less, MS-DOS-only pocket computers after the 200LX. It's because of MS-DOS' death and NOT the 200LX's failure that almost noone uses MS-DOS based PDA's now.

Actually, I had (and still have!) a 200LX, and loved it.

PatrickD

01-21-2005, 04:51 PM

I was thinking the same thing. The HP200LX was a good machine in it's day.

How about an Atari Portfolio? Anyone else have one of those?

Menneisyys

01-21-2005, 04:54 PM

I was thinking the same thing. The HP200LX was a good machine in it's day.

How about an Atari Portfolio? Anyone else have one of those?

Wanted to get one (mostly because of Terminator 2 :mrgreen: ), but then, went for the HP MS-DOS series.

yankeejeep

01-21-2005, 05:11 PM

I don't think the list is necessarily tagging these 10 as horrible, never-should-have-seen-the-light-of-day disasters. If anything, most of them are innovative products that were just short of being fully-realized. And to be blunt, most of them were marketing failures, not technical failures. They didn't make it onto enough people's radar screens to get off the ground. Even a specialty niche needs to be large enough to justify the investment and effort and I think the marketing folks just didn't know what to do with most of these.

PatrickD

01-21-2005, 05:13 PM

Seeing it in T2 definately helped convince me to buy one :D Being able to dial a phone by holding it up to the speaker may seem lame now, but at the time it was pretty cool.

Menneisyys

01-21-2005, 05:21 PM

Being able to dial a phone by holding it up to the speaker may seem lame now, but at the time it was pretty cool.

Well, this is how DTMF works over the telephone line :)

shindullin

01-22-2005, 08:46 PM

I don't think the list is necessarily tagging these 10 as horrible, never-should-have-seen-the-light-of-day disasters. If anything, most of them are innovative products that were just short of being fully-realized. And to be blunt, most of them were marketing failures, not technical failures. They didn't make it onto enough people's radar screens to get off the ground. Even a specialty niche needs to be large enough to justify the investment and effort and I think the marketing folks just didn't know what to do with most of these.

I totally agree. I think that some of them were pricing failures as well. I still remember drooling over the newton when I was in college. I wanted one soooo badly, but couldn't afford one to save my life.