What device to choose for my app ?

[Pharkas]

Hi,

This is probably a question that comes up very often...

I've been asked to develop a mobile app for a service company.

Since this is my first experience with these units, I have a few questions regarding the type of unit could be used.

Basically, the mobile unit has to carry all of the daily info for each crew (calls, adresses, etc...) and be used for basic work order data entry (work done, parts used,...).

The unit does not need to be wireless as we will download/upload the info to the units on a daily basis.

It would be great if it could accept onscreen customer signatures.

Color is not necessary.

What mobile unit would be recommended for this application ? Should I opt for a Palm based system or a Windows based system ?

Any help and/or suggestions would be great as I don't know where to start !

Thanks,

Pharkas

[Jimmy Dodd]

From a development point of view I'd say a lot of it depends on your tools/skill set (what tools are available to you and what experience do you have with them) and what kind of time frame frame are you looking at. If you have experience with .NET or MFC on the desktop then developing for the .NET cf or MFC for CE is a relatively short learning curve (mostly getting used to what isn't supported).

Also, the nature and amount of data you will be gathering can be an important factor. With .NET you have a lot of options with flat files, ADO, XML and SQL Server CE, for instance. If you are synching with a SQL Server database then you should definitely consider looking at SQL Server CE as it supports data replication very well. I'm not sure what Palm has to offer in that regard.

Since the units are going out in the field you might also want to consider some of the ruggedized units from Symbol, et. al. They sell both Microsoft and Palm based solutions with various features that may be of interest to you.

[Pharkas]

Hi,

I would qualify myself as an experience developper, using Visual Basic & Access on many PC projects.

For this reason, I was probaly going to use a Window based PDA.

Is it safe to say that the features compare when using a Palm vs a Window based unit ?

Would it be easier to work with a Window based system since the data I want to transfer is taken from an Access database ?

What would be the minimum requirements of the mobile unit ?

I know I' m asking a lot of questions and I really appreciate the help !

Thanks,

Pharkas

[yuit]

you should probably not look at consumer level models, but at the industrial ones.

I know symbol makes (win ce ?) devices that wal mart auto center people use. these devices are generally built tougher than consumer level models and should take more punishment.

[Oyvind]

I'm jumping in pretty late here, and you may have already decided what to go for, but here's my take:

Definitely Win CE based. Whether you choose Win CE or Pocket PC as your OS is really more a matter of graphical display preference IMHO. I don't have any personal experience with Palm whatsoever, but I understand that they haven't really been commited to backward compatibility when releasing a new version of their OS. You'll never run into that problem with MS, and I think that's a very important point when chosing an OS.

I also understand that Win CE has surpassed Palm in sales some time ago. You definitely want to to acquire skills for the growing market. Also, learning Win CE based programming may open up new venues such as embedded development.

Go for .Net as your development platform, unless you're already well versed in windows programming in MS Visual C++. While the latter can be downloaded for free from MS, it takes significantly more effort to develop in C++ than in .Net. Unless you need the raw power that only a well written C/C++ app can provide, .Net provides the best tradeoff between execution speed and development effort IMHO. The license cost of MS Visual Studio .Net is easily offset against a significantly shorter time of development in most cases. MS is/has pulled the plug on eMbedded Visual Basic, btw, since you can get the same ease of programming in VB .Net, w/o eMbedded VBs severe limitations. Whether you choose to write in C# or VB .Net is mostly a matter of personal preference, BTW.

Any touch screen device can do basic signature capture. Check the web for 3rd party controls that you can use in your app. http://www.componentsource.com/Default.asp?bhcp=1 would be one place to look. OTOH, the signature capture devices used in, e.g., banks, have more advanced features than what you can get off your PDA, such as pressure sensing.