03-02-2006, 11:00 PM
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Developer & Designer, News Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 12,959
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HP Says No to Non-Converged Handheld Devices
"The traditional pen-based PDA market will evaporate within the next four years without significant product innovation, according to Hewlett-Packard (HP). The company will therefore continue to focus the majority of its handheld efforts on converged smart phone devices, relegating its traditional PDAs to the entry-level consumer and SMB markets."
Nothing surprising here. It's only a matter of time before converged devices replace non-converged devices, and the fact that HP hasn't released any groundbreaking standalone PDAs since the hx4700 (no, the rx1950 doesn't count) is a testament to that. And where's Dell in all this?
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03-02-2006, 11:18 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Sep 2005
Posts: 19
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UMPC's and Smartphones will squash the pda.
I agree, 3-3.5" PDA devices have little to offer these days.
Most of the everyday functionality has been moved to smartphones and the rest of the functions (handheld video and limited browsing) will been taken away by ultra-mobile carrypads/origami devices.
I've been doing some more analysis at my blog. if anyone's interested.
Steve/Chippy.
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03-02-2006, 11:33 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 1,108
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Re: UMPC's and Smartphones will squash the pda.
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Originally Posted by shinysteve
I agree, 3-3.5" PDA devices have little to offer these days.
Most of the everyday functionality has been moved to smartphones and the rest of the functions (handheld video and limited browsing) will been taken away by ultra-mobile carrypads/origami devices.
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Bah! Those things are far too large and heavy for most people to carry around. Not to mention that they're far more expensive, less easy to use, shorter battery life, more fragile... I don't buy into the hype that these things are the next wave. They're a dud. Microsoft just can't bring themselves to focus on the one successful mobile product line that they have, Windows Mobile, and instead they keep running off with whatever half-baked idea came out of the R&D guys this week: air panels, tablets, smartphones, microtablets, and whatever silly idea they come up with next.
HP is whining because they've put out two loads of overpriced, unremarkable handhelds, and now they're getting pasted to the wall. Notice that the overall handheld market is up sharply, defying the predictions of doom. Dell is doing as well as ever, other manufacturers like Medion and Acer are doing great. I'm baffled by the persistence of this idea that handhelds are dead and EVERYTHING must be convergence. I've heard this before, you know. But the year was 1998, and it was TVs and computers which were supposed to be converging. There wasn't going to be such a thing as a disconnected TV anymore they said. It didn't happen, because the converged devices were more expensive and less reliable than seperate devices. That's not always the case in the mobile market, but predicting that convergence will take over the world is still a recipe for being very wrong.
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03-02-2006, 11:55 PM
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Philosopher
Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 589
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Re: HP Says No to Non-Converged Handheld Devices
Quote:
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The traditional pen-based PDA market will evaporate within the next four years without significant product innovation, according to Hewlett-Packard (HP). The company will therefore continue to focus the majority of its handheld efforts on converged smart phone devices, relegating its traditional PDAs to the entry-level consumer and SMB markets.
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Um, call me silly, but wouldn't it be HP's job to spur product innovation? I understand Microsoft needs to tweak the OS, but the hardeware is where the real innovation would lie. It seems like HP is trying to shift blame from themselves for the stagnant state of PDAs. PDA innovation should be coming from the device manufacturer, in my opinion.
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03-03-2006, 12:04 AM
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Pupil
Join Date: Sep 2005
Posts: 19
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A few valid points there ADBrown but remember, its not total convergance thats killing the pocket pc, its migration. Total convergence cant happen because of physical limitations. Your PIM, Wifi, Navigation, mini-browsing are all going to the smartphone. All the development money is also being spent on smartphones.
If you dont have a smartphone then fine, a PPC has a big appeal. Thats exactly what I have as a setup. Most of my functionality is still on my PPC.
But if you do have a smartphone, then your PIM, comms, Navigation, mini-browser, Mp3's, camera, processor power are already (or will very soon) built-in and you will rarely need a PPC. (Of course there will be times...)
The carrypad/umpc/origami will just be a new segment for those that want the advantage of a decent video and browsing experience and a decent input mechanism for real-time IM, lengthy emails and document writing around the home, car and coffee shop. It will make a nice complementary device for a smartphone.
I personally doubt, like you, that origami will provide the perfect answer but it could stimulate some other manufacturers to give the carrypad segment some better products.
Regards
Steve
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03-03-2006, 01:55 AM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Jun 2003
Posts: 77
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The day I can't buy a nicely specced PDA without a phone combined with it is the day I abandon carrying "gadgets" and get an iPod and carry around a paper notepad.
I do not want or need a phone inside my device. I will never want or need a phone inside my device.
I'm going to hold on to my hx2755 as long as I can I think.
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03-03-2006, 02:22 AM
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Sage
Join Date: Aug 2004
Posts: 718
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Unfortunately, the converged PDA market hasn't exactly been very innovative lately either. If I see one more QVGA, 64/128, wifi/bluetooth, EVDO/EDGE clone device, I'll flip. How many out there have those specs already? Like, all of them. "Innovative" to manufacturers now is throwing in GPS. Where's the VGA? Or funky things like HP's biometric scanner? The JasJar Universal was the only decently interesting thing to come out in the last two years and it was expensive as hell and had limited functionality in certain parts of the world (i.e., US and Canada).
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03-03-2006, 03:12 AM
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Theorist
Join Date: Jun 2002
Posts: 301
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It all makes sense now...
The incredibly lackluster releases of PPC hardware in the last year or two makes complete sense now. The OEM's have all been seeing NDA Origami prototypes and have recognized it will radically change the game.
The overwhelming majority of the world population that carries a cell phone are very likely to carry one device, a smartphone that does most, if not all, of what a PPC can do.
The "power freaks" like me who always will need more than a smartphone are going to carry a smartphone and an Origami, not a smartphone and a PPC. Having the top-of-the-line PPC (yesterday, today, or tomorrow) just can't free me from needing an XP unit with me when I'm out of the office. So a backpack is unavoidable, and always has been.
Until the last week when I started to see Origami, I was really mad at the OEMs. It felt like they had been "slacking" on me for two years and they had given up on the PPC platform. Now I understand. Microsoft all but told them the PPC was going to be end-of-lifed by Origami and the WindowsMobile technology shunted into smartphones.
Sure there will still be some WindowsMobile PDA's out, but by and large, the game is over and I for one am glad. The Origami will thrash the capabilites of the PPC and give me one LESS device to carry (I'll trade in my notebook which I carry everywhere and my PPC which I carry everywhere for ONE Origami device.)
The PPC is dead! Long live the PPC! (Reborn as the Origami that is!)
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03-03-2006, 03:45 AM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 1,183
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I disagree. Origami is too big for portability for most of us.
I think great-specced phone/PDAs are going to come soon - the JasJatr won't be the last VGA phone.
Like many, I want to have a separate phone and PDA. Unfortunately I can see that my next phone will necessarily HAVE to be a PDA too, becuase it's pretty-well impossible to buy anything but a 'smart' phone. It's just a matter of deciding "How smart do you want it to be?"
But I'm not going to be happy if I cannot get a decent dedicated PDA too!!!!
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03-03-2006, 03:57 AM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Aug 2004
Posts: 93
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SteveHoward,
if you had a phone that's smart enough for everyday PIM + multimedia, wouldn't it make sense to have a nonpocketable (jasjar size?) but ultraportable windows xp pc to go with it?
i know everyone's needs are different, but i think this combination can work for a lot of people.
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