Pocket PC software so expensive.

[boris4098tnt]

There are alot of software on the market today for Pocket PC but they really expensive, you pay about 600 dollars for your Pocket PC unit, plus all the membery cards or removable hard drives thats another couple of hundred bucks and software cost almost the price of a desktop software. I wish there was a way to get free software for Pocket PC.

[Duncan]

There is a lot of free and cheap software for the Pocket PC.

The price of paid for software cannot be helped however. Development time and costs can be just as major as for full PC software - and the market is much smaller so there are not so many economies of scale...

[dean_shan]

There is freee software. Freeware PPC (http://www.freewareppc.com) is just one site that has freesoftware on it.

[BTS]

I've actually found Palm software to be similarily priced or even more expensive. Save for a few apps handheld software is still much cheaper than its desktop counterpart.

[Jacob]

Huh??

How is it too expensive? Most software is under $20 - compare that to PC Desktop software which I've rarely seen under $30 for a major app.

The price of the software is and should be related to a number of factors:

1. Amount of work/costs related to creating the app.
2. Value to the user- how much time/money does it save you..

Among other considerations.

There's freeware available too - here (http://www.pocketpcfreeware.com/) and some here (http://www.ipaqsoft.net/) ... it's there to find if you search for it (http://www.google.com)

[boris4098tnt]

there are software that cost more thna 20 dollars even example like dvd-studio for pocket pc 34.95

[Jacob]

there are software that cost more thna 20 dollars even example like dvd-studio for pocket pc 34.95

I know.. I did say most PPC software is under $20.

You example, well I guess it depends on the factors. How much time/effort went into it.

Let the free market work - if it's not worth it to you, then it's not worth getting.

I don't deny that there are some titles that are possibly over-priced to some people, but I don't think PPC software is in general over priced.

[Jereboam]

I could not do without Pocket Informant. Or Repligo. Or TomTom Navigator. Or Flexwallet. Or any number of apps that I have bought.

The value is there for me. It depends how you use your device I guess.

My problem is that Microsoft markets the Pocket PC as a do it all device out of the box, when it so clearly is not.

If they marketed it as a platform that would be different, and more honest.

J'bm

[Sven Johannsen]

My problem is that Microsoft markets the Pocket PC as a do it all device out of the box, when it so clearly is not.

It is as much a do-it-all as a desktop with only the OS on it. You've added enhancements that you find uesful. I have two senior managers that use theirs, just as it comes. They have the PIM functions, the internet options, can read word and excell to get the gist of the document. From their point of view you could have left the games and Media Player off it. Theirs are actually real stable BTW. Imagine that.

[WyattEarp]

I think the real problem is that people want PPC software to be equivalent to the desktop but at a really cheap price. Pocket Word is fine for basic documet creation then load it to a PC and fix it up. But I if you want all the bells and whistles and the ability to create full-featured documents on the PPC without further editing it on a PC. You can have that but at a premium price by purchasing TextMaker for example which also comes with a desktop companion. I for instance don't like Word PC or PPC so paying for TextMaker is no big deal to me. Keeping track of CDs, DVDs, etc. I use Pocket Excel because I don't like any of the dedicated Dbase software available.


So you have to ask yourself what you want out of your PPC and are you willing to pay for that functionality? Is that functionality already present on the PPC?

[ppcinfo]

In my opinion, if you can spend $600+ US dollars on a Pocket PC device, you can certainly afford paying $25.00 for software. I personally can't justify spending more than $250.00 for a Pocket PC device when they all seem to go obsolete within a year of being released.

You also need to understand that good software requires good programmers that do development work for a living and need to support themselves and their families. Freeware is a nice thing for individuals to develop for others, however, you can't expect the majority of developers to give away software that required lots of hard work.

My 2 cents...

ppcinfo

[Paul Kay]

boris4098tnt wrote:
I wish there was a way to get free software for Pocket PC.

There is boris, develop the software you want, yourself. Following that route may also give you an insight as to why some developers choose to charge for their own efforts.