01-10-2003, 07:00 PM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 8,228
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Handheld PC - RIP?
http://jornada720club.blogspot.com/
Handheld Addict is reporting that the last Handheld PC, or HPC, has been dropped. "According to undisclosed sources, the Jornada 728 has now been officially discontinued. I know that many of you have emailed in to say that your local electrical stores have limited stock. It's a real shame and at the moment there seems to be no official word of any sort of replacement.- Sammual (webmaster)"
I am sorry to see this happen. I looked very seriously at a Jornada 600 series back in 1998 but opted for the PDA form factor with a Nino 320 and never regretted it. It just seems no matter what the OS, these small clamshell embedded OS devices just don't last. Psion has given up entirely on the market and HP was the last offering the CE based Handheld PC 2000 operating system to consumers. The 728 was a mild freshening of the 720 first offered in the fall of 2000.
Given the success of the Pocket PC and the total disinterest in the Handheld PC by the public, I don't see MS or OEMs spending any more resources on the HPC devices. I guess people either want more pocketability with a PDA device or more features with a notebook that a full version of Windows on it.
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01-10-2003, 07:09 PM
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Mystic
Join Date: Dec 2003
Posts: 1,639
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No tears from me!
I've had three devices with this clamshell form factor:
1. A Casio something or other - pre Win CE
2. A Psion
3. An HP with Win CE 1.0
I never really got any use out of any of them. As mentioned thay are too big to comfortably carry around in a pocket, the Casio had limited functionality and the HP was crashing all the time. (Can't remember what happened to the Psion, I might still have it kicking around somewhere).
When I got my Palm Vx, I finally had a device that fitted in my my life, with the result that I use it every day without fail.
The big question is, what to get next. Hmmmm........
__________________
Cheers!
David
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01-10-2003, 07:20 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 332
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I think that, in this case, Sony had something right. They should have had a tablet mode whereby the machine could be arranged into a tablet. Keep the qwerty-esk keyboard though.
Daniel
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01-10-2003, 07:22 PM
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Theorist
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 257
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I think this is a real loss. I have been tempted to buy the 728 or something similar but felt I could not give up my Ipaq. I chose the Ipaq for both business and personal use - I have a keyboard for work during the week and I can carry the Ipaq around at the weekends with no problem. The 728 was to big for personal use and carrying both around AND a mobile phone would be to much.
My view of handhelds is changing since I purchased an SPV smartphone. I am beginning to think that as smartphones get better, they will tempt people away from traditional pocket pc type PDAs - my smartphone allows me to read my email, check the internet, play games and listen to music. I dont use my ipaq half as much at the weekends.
This in turn is changing my view of what type of PDA I would use during the week. The Ipaq was a compromise - I wanted the best I could get for business but the smallest to carry around for personal use. I need a more substantial screen than the smartphone offers and must have a PDA for business. I could now quite easily see myself carrying an excellent smartphone and a good business type handheld during the week.
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01-10-2003, 07:46 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 396
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The Samsung Nexio (current s150 and upcoming s160) could possibly be described as a Handheld... wide landscape screen and optional keyboard. It does run CE.NET as an OS rather than Handheld PC.
Fred
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01-10-2003, 08:09 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 414
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This is two of three of the original Windows CE attack on mobile, instant access computing. There was a subnotebook sized model line, this HP 700 series, and of course the pocket PC. I would very much have liked to see a model like this or better yet, the larger model (What was it called? the Jornada 920? 830?). If Dell had joined the fray at that point and sold them for $400 vs. the $900 that HP/....I remember there was a model with a wild swivel screen called the Clio. The Compaq/IBM model was the Z50?
I would have paid $400-500 for one, but not $900.
Well, they are gone and the latest software (TEXTMAKER!) makes the PPC just as useful (for what *I* would do) now anyway.
Are the NECs still being made?
Farewell, HPC Pro.
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01-10-2003, 08:27 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Feb 2005
Posts: 67
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Smaller and smaller notebooks just keep creeping up. I know they aren't as small and compact as the HPC, but they aren't far off. The small VAIOs and there's a JVC one here in Germany. It has XP. It looks like a nice 'throw in the backpack' type computer.
I'm sure the PPC was the real death of the HPC, though.
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01-10-2003, 08:28 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Dec 2002
Posts: 124
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The subnotebook market is just too hot. For $999, you can buy a small laptop instead of a Windows CE unit. I owned a Casio, an HP620LX, and an HP720LX. They were nice units, but the Pocket PC/Palm/Zaurus form factor fits people's lives.
[BTW, still have the 620LX, in case anyone is interested.]
As far as Pocket PC Phones and Smart Phones - I still like sep. units. I have oily skin, and I hate having my PDA have oil on the screen. [Combination American Indian - Irish - Japanese evidently == oily skin]
I also don't want one battery dying, and losing both phone and PDA. Maybe once fuel cell tech catches up with computing tech....
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01-10-2003, 08:29 PM
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Sage
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 652
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Although I own and iPAQ I will miss the clamshell design. My first of that type was the HP95LX ending with the HP200LX. I got very disenchanted when it was discontinued and replaced with the WinCE 1.0 which in my opinion was a failure on the MS software side until the handhelds reached Pocket PC 2000. But in any case it's a form factor that died before its time.  Who knows it may just popup again one day. 
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01-10-2003, 09:01 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 92
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Why the HPC failed?
From my perspective the key failure of this form factor, aside from it's size, was the deadended HPC 2000 OS. In many ways, it was the proof-of-concept machine - i.e. contained two memory slots, a smartcard reader and a built-in 56K modem. My iPAQ didn't come with all of that - but it did come with an upgradeable ROM image. When Microsoft failed to keep the OS in production they destined the device to the history books.
In a perfect world, Microsoft would create one WinCE version with hardware abstraction and the vendors would be freed to build upgradeable devices and not have to be worried that someone would see HPC 2000 as a "negative" in 2003.
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Linear Mode
