AvantGo Survey: Mobile Device Users Tend to be Loyal

[Pat Logsdon]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://palmaddict.typepad.com/palmaddicts/2004/10/website_mobile__3.html' target='_blank'>http://palmaddict.typepad.com/palma..._mobile__3.html</a><br /><br /></div>"Mobile computing users are loyal to their devices, according to the AvantGo Mobile Lifestyle Survey. The survey of 3,260 AvantGo users showed that 85 percent of Pocket PC and 82 percent of Palm OS owners plan to stick with the same mobile operating system (OS) when it comes time to make their next purchase.<br /><br />The survey also looked at users' future plans for mobile use. Two out of every three respondents plan to purchase a regular PDA rather then one with a phone. Thirty-one percent said they would purchase a phone/PDA hybrid, only 3 percent would switch to a Symbian smartphone device, and 4.5 percent would switch to a RIM BlackBerry device. When asked to build their “dream” mobile device, respondents listed 12 top features: calendar/contact list; easy synchronization with PCs; great battery life; e-mail and messaging; Wi-Fi or Bluetooth access; compact size; MP3 player; phone; large screen; GPS locater; over 20 gigabyte memory; and camera."<br /><br />Interesting results, especially about the seemingly inevitable convergence of phones and PDAs. Do you agree with the results AvantGo came up with? How do those "dream" features sound to you? :)

[Take1]

Completely false in my case! I'll regularly bounce between the two platforms depending upon what features are available in the hardware. There are pluses and minuses for both OSes. I hack the OS GUI using various launchers and, as a result, they wind up nearly being the same (OS peculiarities aside).

What drove me to Palm was the hi-res + screens, but now with PPC doing VGA, I'm looking towards getting a PPC next time around. If Palm can do a 5 gig hard drive unit with 8 hour batt life and wifi (in a clamshell) that might win me back, but the T5 has me looking at the Dell much more seriously!

[maximus]

Interesting results, especially about the seemingly inevitable convergence of phones and PDAs. Do you agree with the results AvantGo came up with? How do those "dream" features sound to you? :)

Couldn't agree more with the 20 gigs memory feature :)
How about a PPCPE with 3000 mAH battery, 3 megapixel camera with 3x optical zoom with a "real" lens (such as the minolta GT or leica vario elmarit lenses to replace the crappy chimei lenses), and its thickness is less than 1 cm.

I am sure that purchasing this "dream" device requires a "dream" job with a "dream" income :)

[SteveHoward999]

phone and large screen do not go together IMHO.

Besides, I don't want my greasy ear print all over my PDA.

[maximus]

Besides, I don't want my greasy ear print all over my PDA.

Ah yes. One of the most negative factor that made me stop using XDA2 as primary phone. The weather is very hot and humid down here, so at the end of every phone conversation, I have to wipe the screen with microfiber cloth ... what a pain. I ended up using handsfree cable.

It will be really nice if HTC would put the speaker and microphone on the back of the device.

[SteveHoward999]

It's hot here too ... Mississippi Gulf Coast. As I type it's 81 degrees, been dark for 2 hours and it is the middle of October ... if I still lived in Scotland I'd be lucky to see 55 degrees at the hottest part of the day right now ...

I certainly can see the attraction of phone+PDA combined, especially with hands-free Bluetooth headset, but I don't think anyone has brought a format to market yet that would convince me to buy a combined machine - especially given the fact that I fly a lot and I don't want to go through the condescending conversation ...

"yes I know it is a phone, but I have switched off the phone part, and the wi-fi, so please stop telling me to switch off my PDA and leave me to read my book in peace!

[jasondearyou]

I think i'm loyal to the device that shows improvement, and connection with the customer.

I think palm is too pig headed to change,

I think microsoft, however buggy and slow they are, try to cater to the needs of the customers.

[Felix Torres]

The survey tells us the obvious: that Avantgo customers are data-centric.
Which is good for Avantgo because they are a data-distribution channel. :-)
(Data-centric folks will go for the PDA over the smartphone every time.)

And it tells us their customers have a good feel for their needs and had it *before* buying their first PDA and hence have no need to change their minds. (Or maybe they're too stubborn to change.) :twisted:

Or, to put it in technical terms: the survey answers are skewed by the sample selection criteria.

[Warwick]

Does anyone actualy use Avantgo anymore?
I gave it up a long time ago myself, when they went insane.

[SteveHoward999]

Yeah I do. It's easier than trying to read a newspaper on bus/train/plane/toilet seat/at Dentist ....


:lol:

[MikeUnwired]

After many years as a staunch Palm OS user, I've finally come over to the Pocket PC side. I just got tired of waiting for Palm to implement the multi-tasking and such that I grew to need out of a handheld. I would have probably gone over to the "dark side" earlier, but I made alot of money building training programs for the Treo 600 and it became a pretty handy tool -- even with its limitations.

I got soured on Pocket PC when the initial iPAQ 3600s came out and I had all types of issues with ActiveSync and Windows 98. Now that they've ironed-out most of the problems and I'm running XP Pro, I have no problems. I bought a HP iPAQ h2215 to build a PPC training program a little over a year ago and it was pretty nice all in all. But, the Treo 600 came along and I didn't have a Bluetooth phone to utilize with the 2215 for email and such, so I compromised and learned to limp along with a 160 x 160 screen.

I really got a little upset when the Palm folks replaced Graffiti with Graffiti2. I just can't shake Graffiti and prefer it. Since all PPCs come with Block Recognizer by default, I'm in my element better with them than Palms these days. The big decision point for me came when the Treo 650 specs came out and Sony pulled out of the US. To me, the Clie UX50 is the best Palm handheld ever built and it's a shame that it's no longer going to be available to the US marketplace. Palm just didn't do it for me any longer. And, when I got my hands on my new iPAQ hx4700 with it's beautifully large screen, I knew I would never go back -- well, at least for the foreseeable future.

[Jonathon Watkins]

Does anyone actualy use Avantgo anymore?

I'm playing with it at the moment, now that I am now commuting by train each day. I tried 'World Offline', but it is SLOW. Nice options though.

BTW, too much info there SteveHoward999. :wink:


I would not switch platforms - unless MS completely abandoned the PPC platform, which is not going to happen. If a competitor gets ahead in an area, I have every confidence that MS can and will play catchup and leapfrog the latest and greatest. Yea, so Palm lead the hi-rez race for a while, but now the PPC does with a better implementation. QVGA, or VGA. Simple, effective, powerful. 8)

[Darius Wey]

I'm definitely sticking with the PPC. PalmOne simply doesn't offer the features that it used to, and many of the new handheld innovations that we see today are designed for the Pocket PC in mind, and rarely will you see these developments in the Palm market. One other thing, there just seems to be an overall tighter integration between Pocket PCs and PCs, than Palms and PC.

BTW, SteveHoward999, remind me never to touch your Pocket PC seeing as though you probably don't wash it after you've done your "daily tasks". :P

[SteveHoward999]

BTW, SteveHoward999, remind me never to touch your Pocket PC seeing as though you probably don't wash it after you've done your "daily tasks". :P

I discovered that those moist wipes you can get are great for cleaning the PDA ... 8)

[bkerrins]

SteveHoward999...You're not by chance Dr. Steve Howard MDA?

Anyway, back to the original post: I think this survey describes me extremely well.
"great battery life; e-mail and messaging; Wi-Fi or Bluetooth access; compact size; MP3 player; phone; large screen; GPS locater; over 20 gigabyte memory; and camera" The one exception is I don't use messaging. (I think I'm the only person on the planet that doesn't though.)

[SteveHoward999]

SteveHoward999...You're not by chance Dr. Steve Howard MDA?

Nope, sorry.

[jonathanchoo]

I think microsoft, however buggy and slow they are, try to cater to the needs of the customers.

Yeah right...

Just played with a hx4700 last week. Want landscape, tap on start then settings then system then display then rotate.

Pathetic.

[conflagrare]

I'm still looking for a X button which closes the program without third party software.

[Darius Wey]

I'm still looking for a X button which closes the program without third party software.

Sadly...not yet. :cry:

This issue has been raised time and time again, and hopefully, it will be addressed in future versions of the Windows Mobile OS (fingers-crossed).

Thus, we just have to make do with third-party software at the moment. However, there are many free programs that provide a proper X button if you don't want to pay for that feature.

[KimVette]

I have no loyalty to vendors; I have loyalty to solutions for problems, features, and customer service.

I used to be very loyal to Compaq - I have an iPAQ (expandable via "sleeves" or "sleds"), Compaq headsets, Compaq servers, etc.

When HP bought Compaq, things pretty much remained the same - for just under a year. HP has fired most of the Compaq folks, axed the iPAQ team, axed support, etc., pledged to support the sleeve form factor with new iPAQ models for at least two more years (then dropped support a year early), effectively killed the ProLiant server line (it's all HP crap now. Sorry, I'll go to Dell or build my own before I buy an HP), effectively killed the iPAQ line (the new models are NOT iPAQs, they're Jornadas), and fired tens of thousands of American workers in the process.

Am I loyal to HP? *censor the worst profanities you can possibly imagine* no!!

PocketPC vendors are screwing customers. Microsoft requires that PocketPC vendors include a flash-upgradable firmware to allow for OS upgrades if you want to advertise a unit as a PocketPC. Fantastic! Good call, Microsoft! However, they dropped the ball by not requiring OEMs to provide upgrades. It was a GREAT idea, but unfortunately they didn't follow through with the principle, in practice. :( It's not Microsoft's fault and I don't blame them - I blame greedy *censor the worst profanities you can possibly imagine* like Carly Fiorina who are so blinded by greed that they cannot see the potential long term gains by a) honoring their advertising and keeping their word and b) treating the customer well by providing reasonable upgrade paths.

I'm the same with desktop OSes. I've jumped from Amiga to Windows, then from Windows to Linux, back to Windows, and now I am in the process of migrating to Linux because I refuse to lay out the cash for more upgrades for Microsoft software and buy more CALs.

I am not loyal to platforms or OEMs at all. For our DVRs, for example, we've been using Asus boards, but because Asus has been changing their board designs without posting updates to their online specs, I'm dumping them for Iwill or even Abit on the high-end side. Yes, I know and understand the disclaimer "Specifications subject to change without notice," however, when you change server and workstation boards that people know and rely on, and have ordered the appropriate RAM and power supplies only to learn you've changed the design without updating the specs (which small vendors check before EVERY order), that's just scummy. So, although Asus boasts what may be the lowest failure rates in the business, I'm looking at other boards which may meet the spec. Would I like to stick with Asus for all models? Darn straight - their failure rates on the boards we use are well under 2%. But, long hold times for support combined with their changing designs at whim without so much as mentioning it in a manual addendum or an online update is inexcusable, disclaimer or not.