what happened to innovation in pocketpcs?

[that dan guy]

Is it just me or does it seem like the ppc market has gone a little stagnant? Everyone is just bringing out the same devices but in different colors and slightly different sizes. I think the ipaq 2200 series was the last great step. I bought a dell axim advance ( the old one) and I really like it and have gotten way more use out of it than money I spent. The only problem was that it was too big. All the manufaturers of pdas were rolling out pdas some were smaller but did not have both memory slots. Some would come out with both memory slots but no transflective screen or no wireless connectivity. Then the ipaq 2200 came out and it had both cf and sd slots and bluetooth and a transflective screen but it was small and man pretty. I thought hey why not wait and see whats next instead of blowing my was now. Where is the whats next? All of the pdas that are coming out now are just redoing what has been done. Yeah sure the pricing my be better on some of them. What is the deal with the 4100 series ipaq and what makes it better than the 2200 or the 1900 it seems to me like they should have gone a step up with this model. Why havent we seen more innovation where are the internal hard drives and dedicated graphics processors and better pda phones. I just think that these devices need to have moved to the point where they are more like the OQO device but they seem stuck at 300-400 mhz processors and a whopping 64-128 mg of ram. Does anyone else feel like we are really lagging behind the times? The thing that kills me is that palm is starting to catch up and ppc is just resting on its laurals because the average joe is still wowed by choppy video on a pocket sized screen.

thats my 2 cents what do you think?

danno

[Badandy]

Innovative




Ipaq 4000 series.

[Jason Dunn]

Indeed, it does seem like we're stuck at 400 mhz and 64 mb or 128 mb of RAM, but I expect that to change this year. I think we'll see more innovation in terms of wireless and tri devices (WiFi, BT, GPRS). I think the 4350 is an innovative device with the keyboard, so HP is one vendor that's trying different things, and I applaud them for it.

[arnage2]

MSFT has rules about pocket pc's. Thats why most of them can have wifi. Palm source can give a rats @$$ about what the lincense does with their handhels, thats why ther's no wifi. Less originality=more compatability. Intel says that there will be new xscales this year @ 500-800mhz.

[JustinGTP]

I know - why are we stuck at the 400mhz and yet the memory in the compact flash and microdrives are getting 2 - 3 - 4 GB +

If we can get the 500mhz and 800mhz I will be so happy :D

-Justin.

[Jason Dunn]

MSFT has rules about pocket pc's. Thats why most of them can have wifi. Palm source can give a rats @$$ about what the lincense does with their handhels, thats why ther's no wifi. Less originality=more compatability. Intel says that there will be new xscales this year @ 500-800mhz.

If you're suggesting that Microsoft's rules are the reasons why we haven't seen a Pocket PC with more then 128 MB of RAM or faster than 400 mhz, that would be completely false.

[tsb_hcy]

Toshiba e805

That's about as innovative as it can get until Intel and MS step up to the plate. We need 1GHz processors and Magneto. 0X

[dmacburry2003]

I feel pity for Palm since they only recently got out of the double-digits processor speed gutter.

[Jason Dunn]

I feel pity for Palm since they only recently got out of the double-digits processor speed gutter.

For media playback, sure, their processor sucked, but for everyday stuff, it was quite snappy. Then again, so was my 33mhz 486sx when running DOS - uni-tasking operating systems aren't as "heavy".

[that dan guy]

The 4350 other than the fact that it has a keyboard is not that big a departure from the rest of the pack. Now if it was a slide out keyboard that did not add too much bulk to the device I would agree. But I thought the 4350 was too long and it only has an sd slot. The toshiba m805 is pretty cool but it is huge and the higher resolution is not really that useful at this point because nothing really works with it from what I have read. All I am saying is that ppc manufacturers are coming out with new ppcs that don't really move forward and in some instances they go backword. Take the new models for example; the ipaq 4350, the dell axim x3, and the toshiba m805. All models excell in different areas but not one of them gets it right and in fact I think some of the models they replace make a better solution.

The 4350 adds a keyboard and a great screen and embedded wireless connectivity, the 4150 is really small like the 1940 but is it truly that much better? The 4350 does have a keyboard but It adds another inch or so in length and it does not have a cf slot and I don't have a 1 gig sd card but I do have a 1 gig cf card.

The axim did the same thing and fixed the problem of size, the new x3 is small and adds most of the functionality of the x5 without the added bulk. but again they take a step backwards and remove the cf slot.

The m805 have all the bells and whistles but it is pretty damn big and the real innovation was the fact that it had a higher resolution screen. That does not work with very many programs.

Now I know a lot of you will say that the cf card is going out and sd is the future but they are still really expensive and like I said it is not quite up to the capacities that cf has and you have a lot more io options with cf so to count it out as a manufacturer just seems really premature.

I also know that some of you will say hey you can't have all the nice doodads and expect to be small. I would agree but the 2200 has both slots a nice transflective screen ( maybe not the best but nice and transflective) and embedded bluetooth connectivity and it is small and sleek looking.

My main complaint is that why are these guys only giving us half the goods and pumping out new devices every 6 months that are just baby steps forward and a step or two back. When HP has shown that it can make a great all in one device, why did they not build on that one.

I think I am up to 4 cents now,

danno

[Badandy]

, the 4150 is really small like the 1940 but is it truly that much better?

ummmm, ya




-400 MHz
-64 MB RAM
-WiFi
-Bluetooth (change from 1915)
-All in a VERY small size

[tsb_hcy]

The toshiba m805 is pretty cool but it is huge and the higher resolution is not really that useful at this point because nothing really works with it from what I have read.
The m805 have all the bells and whistles but it is pretty damn big and the real innovation was the fact that it had a higher resolution screen. That does not work with very many programs.


The truth is, there isn't much that doesn't work in VGA. Almost everything works perfectly in VGA, and games are the biggest exceptions by far. Don't forget, you do still have QVGA when you want it. Believe me, after spending time in VGA very few ever want to see QVGA again. Yes, it is bigger than most PPCs, but it does have a 4" screen, 128 MB RAM, 64 MB flash ROM, wifi and dual slots. Some may call it a brick, but I consider anything without dual slots, wifi and VGA a smaller but worthless brick. :wink:

[jkendrick]

The m805 have all the bells and whistles but it is pretty damn big and the real innovation was the fact that it had a higher resolution screen. That does not work with very many programs.


danno

If you had seen a movie playing in VGA landscape (widescreen) in PocketMVP you wouldn't say this. And virtually every program works in VGA.

I've had the 805 for over 2 months now and I have not run in QVGA since day 1.

[Janak Parekh]

The truth is, there isn't much that doesn't work in VGA. Almost everything works perfectly in VGA, and games are the biggest exceptions by far.
A surprising number of them do play. You should see SimCity 2000 in VGA. It's mind-blowing.

And what's about the size? It is not that big. It's about the size of the Axim X5; perhaps a little wider. It's certainly no 1910 or 4150, but it's definitely pocketable. I can even put it into my shirt pocket for a few minutes if I have to.

--janak