06-06-2003, 12:00 AM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 8,228
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The Sound Of One Palm Clapping
http://techupdate.zdnet.com/techupdate/stories/main/0,14179,2913931,00.html
The Pocket PC has been, from day one, a PDA that is meant to push technology to its limits and be a device that can win the enterprise market. Palm has taken the opposite approach by keeping the device and operating system relatively simple. Palm Source's Chief Competitive Officer Michael Mace told columnist David Berlind that "the Pocket PC is too big, too complex, and requires too many pit stops at the recharging station to be appreciated by anybody but the techno-elite who are typically willing to make such sacrifices to own a pocket rocket. "Handheld technology is immune to Moore's Law," he says. "The situation is not about to improve for Pocket PC any time soon."
Whoops!  ops: "Two years later, Palm is eating Mace's words as PocketPC-based devices continue to eat away at Palm's share of the handheld OS pie. While handheld technologies were becoming more capable and Microsoft's PocketPC OS in particular took advantage of those capabilities, Palm remained true to its original convictions."
Microsoft has also remained true to its original convictions. It has kept the Win32 API. It has emphasized the enterprise. It has designed the .NET concept from the beginning with mobile devices based on Windows CE being an integral part of it. Developing for the Pocket PC (and Smartphone) is a matter of using the exact same Visual Studio.NET platform. The .NET Compact Framework is available for client machines now and will be in the ViewSonic V37's ROM. I am sure other devices will follow suit. Mobile Information Server, once a pet project of the Mobile Device group has been swallowed whole and integrated deep into Exchange 2003.
Meanwhile, Palm is still facing some OS4 vs OS5 compatibility issues on the developer front, and developing for the PalmOS is unlike anything else, so you have to specifically target the platform, something corporate developers are not likely to do. Developing for Windows and perhaps Java is enough. Palm abandoned its Tungsten Mobile Information Management Solution, a product that would have competed with Exchange 2003's integrated Mobile Information Server bits.
Tying this all back to the Handspring acquisition, where is Palm going? As columnist Berlind points out, what is Palm getting besides distribution, a customer list and the Treo brand? Distribution is only good if you can hang on to marketshare, something Palm hasn't been doing lately and Sony hasn't made matters easier for them. Ditto the customer list. I don't see the Treo giving Palm any inroads to the enterprise either. It certainly hasn't given Handspring any. Do you think PalmSpring matters makes a more formidable opponent than did Palm Solutions and Handspring did separately?
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06-06-2003, 12:30 AM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Sep 2007
Posts: 62
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Can anybody think of any technology battles that Microsoft may have lost?
There was a pc version GEOS and OS/2 but Windows took over
There was a Wordpefect but MS Word now rules
There was a Lotus but now I can hardly ever see anybody using anything but Excel
Is there still a Netscape? :?
It seems to me like when MS goes to battle, is just a matter of time before they win. The only failed product that comes to mind is Liquid Motion, Flash just kicked its butt.
Can you guys think of other ones? :?:
I wonder if the Palm guys REALLY think they can win. :roll:
I heard once that the best way to predict the future is to look at the past.
I also was told once never to bad mouth MS, it is just a matter before we all work for Bill G. :roll:
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06-06-2003, 12:39 AM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Aug 2007
Posts: 238
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The only comment I can make though is that for the most part, the technology used by Palm and Sony has caught up with the Pocket PC, whereas PPC devices have remained relatively constant. Included WiFi and BT is ok, but how about VGA screens or an OS that can support a landscape mode (and a really good version of ActiveSync). You look at as Palm devices becoming more like PPC's, but I see as MS dragging their feet.
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06-06-2003, 12:53 AM
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Philosopher
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 516
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Same old story. Microsoft will dominate because they have more money than everyone else. Have I got it right? If true, it's good news for MS shareholders, but bad news for consumers.
I'm curious about Mace's supposed comments about Moore's law not applying. If he really said it, he was wrong. Big deal. I might care if he put his false opinions into practice, but he didn't. They've applied it themselves with the Tungsten C offering stellar battery life, a 320x320 screen, and Wi-Fi.
I disagree with the author's comment about replaceable batteries being a necessity. They are a necessity only so long as you can't provide acceptable battery life to support the features that your device offers.
As for the enterprise market that this author (and certain other eye rolling individuals) like to mention, it's a myth. One day? Maybe. But not for the last several years and not for the forseeable future. Handhelds in use at corporations are bought by individuals. They are not deployed en masse (aside from vertical markets). Handheld makers who want to be successful would be wise to aim their feature set at impressing consumers, not IT managers.
Scott
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Tapland
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06-06-2003, 01:14 AM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 139
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Scott R
Same old story. Microsoft will dominate because they have more money than everyone else. Have I got it right? If true, it's good news for MS shareholders, but bad news for consumers.
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I think the fact that more people use Tivo, AOL, Playstation 2 and even Apache than Microsoft's competing products proves that money can not buy you a dominating market share.
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Wes SalmonSoftware Test EngineerMicrosoft Mobile and Embedded Devices
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06-06-2003, 01:30 AM
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Philosopher
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 516
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Wes Salmon
I think the fact that more people use Tivo, AOL, Playstation 2 and even Apache than Microsoft's competing products proves that money can not buy you a dominating market share.
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Well it depends on how good their product is and how much of a financial hit they're willing to take short-term. In the case of the XBox, they're cutting deep into their profits (if you can call losses profits) in order to establish a footing.
In the case of the PPC, they don't make the hardware, and the OS license is one of the cheaper ingredients in what makes a PPC, so aside from possibly offering some major rebates to consumers, it's difficult for them to affect the pricing there.
The MSN vs AOL battle has become largely unimportant as consumers move more and more to high speed offerings. Low-band consumers tend to not want to be bothered with switching from whatever they currently use (which would primarily be AOL).
Scott
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Tapland
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06-06-2003, 01:33 AM
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Theorist
Join Date: Jun 2002
Posts: 300
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Scott R
Same old story. Microsoft will dominate because they have more money than everyone else. Have I got it right? If true, it's good news for MS shareholders, but bad news for consumers.
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How did Microsoft wind up with all that money in the first place? Providing products and services that people don't need? I don't think so. Microsoft filled a void that Palm and others could not. It's not Microsoft's fault that Palm fell asleep behind the wheel and it took them this long to wake up. There is no question that all that cash is a huge advantage to Microsoft, but it hasn't always been there.
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06-06-2003, 01:58 AM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,202
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I do think Palm lost market share because they rested on their laurels for too long. Yes they have responded hardware wise with the Tungsten Line, but their new OS is basically their old OS with a few minor tweeks. I still can't believe that the have a hard limit on the number of categories allowed or they don't have a true file system. It's Mace's kind of thinking that has really hurt Palm.
However, it would appear that MS is now resting on their laurels, if rumors about PPC2003 come true. I have to agree with earlier comment that both these organizations are chasing a market that isn't there (Enterprise) and losing opportunities on the consumer side of things.
How much do MS' "Pocket PC" hardware requirements restrict hardware manufacturers from innovating? I'm beginning to wonder if that's why we haven't seen integrated keyboards, or higher resolution screens. MS is all about conformity and I bet that applies to PocketPC too. :evil:
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06-06-2003, 01:59 AM
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Pupil
Join Date: Apr 2003
Posts: 15
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Paul P
How did Microsoft wind up with all that money in the first place?
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By getting lucky in the DOS/cpm wars, then by using monopoly power to strong arm hardware manufactureres to bundle their OS, then by strong arming netscape out of existence. If you think it was on the excellence of their design, you must have missed DOS and win3.0. I'm not denying they have made some good products, but not enough to explain the extent of their domination of the market.
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06-06-2003, 02:02 AM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,202
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Also, I don't think their is a tangible benefit to Palm in acquiring Handspring. Perhaps Palm thinks a convergence device is going to become a hot product and figured it was easier and quicker to purchase the intellectual property than to develop it themselves.
More likely, they THINK they are getting in-roads into mobile phone vendors. But I suspect those vendors are very fickle and don't care who they are getting their phones from as long as they see a way to make money.
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