Ultra-portable PC's vs. the Pocket PC

[Zero101]

With Ultra-portable PC's like the U50 available, and more on the horizon like the OQO, the Flipstart, Tiqit, etc... how many of you are preparing to ditch your PDA?

I have been giving this some thought lately, and I think I will stick with my pocket pc... but I am curious how many others are about ready to jump ship in favor of something more powerful?

[Zero101]

With Ultra-portable PC's like the U50 available, and more on the horizon like the OQO, the Flipstart, Tiqit, etc... how many of you are preparing to ditch your PDA?

I have been giving this some thought lately, and I think I will stick with my pocket pc... but I am curious how many others are about ready to jump ship in favor of something more powerful?

[Kati Compton]

Flipstart comes closest, but I need instant-on. Actually, reports about slower "on" time for WM2003SE have me a little concerned.

[dean_shan]

Ultra-Portables and PPC have two different purposes. I don't really think it's a Product A vs. Product B market.

[Sven]

Originally Posted by dean_shan

Ultra-Portables and PPC have two different purposes. I don't really think it's a Product A vs. Product B market.

True, but when you stick a product in between two options, PPC vs Laptop, you can drag folks in from both sides. There are surely PPC users that desperately need the portability, but miss the full-sized software features, and laptop users that have to have the software but would really like the portability of a smaller device. I think what is going to limit the acceptance of the ultra-portable PCs is the price. For the average consumer, the difference between this $350 PPC and that $2000 Ultra-Portable is going to be lost. In fact the difference between that $1000 laptop and the $2000 ultra-portable is going to require some real thought.

I think if the accessories are convenient enough that the ultra-portable can be either your only machine, or replace both your laptop and PPC, then it would become more economically attractive... to me anyway.

[Kati Compton]

Originally Posted by Sven

For the average consumer, the difference between this $350 PPC and that $2000 Ultra-Portable is going to be lost. In fact the difference between that $1000 laptop and the $2000 ultra-portable is going to require some real thought.

Yeah - from the laptop side, it'll be a subset of the people with "current" ultraportables (small Sonys, Fujitsus, CD-less Dell Lattitude series, IBM X series, etc).

From the PDA side, I think it'll primarily be a subset of the high-end unit owners, not the people demanding small 19xx or 41xx sizes. But I think there you might see more crossover.

I think it'll be infrequent that someone that normally carries a 9lb desktop replacement laptop will pony up the money and deal with the (minor to some) inconveniences of these units.

I don't think many desktop-only people will be replacing with this... I think most making a first foray into mobile computing want something cheaper. And these units are more expensive than most desktops, Alienware aside.

I'm not saying there isn't a market - there is. But I'm just not sure how big it is. We shall see!

[Janak Parekh]

Originally Posted by Kati Compton

Actually, reports about slower "on" time for WM2003SE have me a little concerned.

Soft-resetting is much slower, not turn-on time.

--janak

[surur]

Of course the main advantages of ultra-portables are that they run regular software. I think however that this is also its biggest problem. The software will not be optimised for a small physical screen, and the screen will by high-res, making text and on-screen furniture smaller.

I believe a lot of pocketpc software even forget this, and dont optimise software enough for small screens and fingers (not styluses). It will be even worse for e.g the flip-start. Imagine staring at an Excel cell thats only a few millimetres big.

The form-factor is really important, and I think its likely people will just end up with a really small laptop, which will be difficult and unergonomical to use, instead of a device and GUI designed from the beginning for a small form factor.

As many people have said before, the landscape will change completely not with small formfactor laptops, but when some-one makes a mass-market ppc with a hard drive (20GB at least )

Surur

[OneAngryDwarf]

ultra portables have their place but for the most part its pointless to most people i imagine. The more mobile something is, the harder it is to work with... I mean more difficult as in not being able to use a full keyboard and such. I think that is the true power of the PocketPC... it has minimalistic programs to make up for that loss of ease. Using an ultra portable eliminates that advantage by using fully functional software which was not designed for use on ultra portables... Given there are some people that probably find these indespensible for whatever it is they do but the average person would rather do less on their handheld and make it easy and then use it in conjunction with a main computer that they can do everything else on

[spinedoc]

I am a die hard pocket PC user, I still love my 2215. But I just got incredibly tired of not being able to have a fully functional PC on the go. I have a Sony TR which is very very small, yet not quite small enough to take on the road all the time. So I sprung for a U70, this thing is amazing. Once you have one of these for a few days I guarantee most will change their minds and throw away their Pocket PC's. I can run ANY software on this machine, perform any WinXP function, etc etc.

Pair this incredible device with the Pocket PC, that has not really been hardware updated in a long long time, and there is no comparision. I was all excited with the new ppc's coming out, until I really thought about it. VGA? Yes very cool, prob the biggest overdue thing on PPC. Faster processor? Not really, maybe 20% in the higher end cases. Memory? What a joke, 64mb? Even 128? Where are the hard drives?

Now there are some drawbacks to the ultraportable set as well, but once these are solved I see the PocketPC as only a stepping stone to a true ultraportable. The first hurdle is size, yes the Pocket PC's are still much smaller and thinner than the ultraportables. I can fit my U70 in my back pocket, but it fills the entire pocket. As miniturization gets better expect ultraportables to rival the sizes of PocketPC's. Still if you need a laptop replacement you cant beat an ultraportable if you need full WInXP solution. Another hurdle is battery life, this can be partially solved with a larger battery, but once again at the expense of weight. A pocket pc with extended battery will always be smaller and lighter than an ultraportable, but not in the future.

Input is as good if not much better than a Pocket PC, especially if you load up Windows Tablet edition.


Just my thoughts as a once die hard PPC user converted.

[Sven]

Another thing that would have to happen for me to embrace an ultra-portable is some sort of ActiveSync like synchronization between the ultra-portable and the main machine. I would need to be able to sync the Oultook PIM info on the two devices at least, with little effort. I don't believe there is any real good, widespread solution for this today. (Could be wrong). Needs to be as effortless as ActiveSync 'usually' is.

I do have Exchange Server running at home and have the laptop configured for offline use, so it is not a big issue for me anymore, but for the average user with just the PC and the laptop/ultra-portable, keeping them in sync, like a PPC, can be a challenge.