11-14-2002, 09:30 AM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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Pocket Office and the Truth About the 3rd Party Market
Just in case you didn't know, Palm kicks the Pocket PC's butt when it comes to working with Microsoft Office Documents.  ops: Just how badly? This Brighthand article does a good job of showing the differences, and it's something that Microsoft should be embarrassed about (I believe they are). Simply put, if opening Word and Excel documents, making edits, and sending them to someone else is an important part of your daily work, the Pocket PC isn't a good choice. It pains me to say that, but it's the truth (granted, no mobile device supports commenting and change tracking, so as a writer I can't use anything out there).
So why doesn't DataViz, the creators of the impressive Documents To Go, make their solution available for the Pocket PC? I believe it's because they fear Microsoft will make their software obsolete if and when Microsoft enhances Pocket Word and Pocket Excel. This is common in the computer industry - when Microsoft enters some markets, they inadvertently kill off the vendors in that market. Sometimes they want to do this (NetScape), but in a smaller market (Pocket PCs) this is the last thing they want to do. Unfortunately, as we wait for Microsoft to come out with a better solution, as consumers we lose. Remember this the next time you wail for Microsoft to release Pocket PowerPoint - odds are it would be as feature-limited as Pocket Word is, and we'd lose the excellent solutions already in the market today.
A quote from the Brighthand article:
"Take the word processing and spreadsheet software that comes with your typical handheld computer, for instance. Most people assume that Pocket Word and Pocket Excel on a Pocket PC handles Microsoft Word and Excel documents better than a third-party application, such as DataViz's Documents To Go, on a Palm Powered handheld. After all, Microsoft makes both products so naturally it should be more consistent, and more compatible. But in a recent hands-on study conducted by Brighthand, we found that a Palm handheld with Documents To Go does a significantly better job of handling Word and Excel documents than does a Pocket PC using Pocket Word and Pocket Excel. Surprised? So were we."
This is certainly no secret in the PDA world, and I have to admit I rolled my eyes a little when I read the above paragraph - I seriously doubt the author was surprised by the results. This gives the article a decidedly insincere tone. However, the truth remains that Microsoft needs to greatly enhance Pocket Word and Pocket Excel before the Pocket PC can fulfill its destiny as being the best portable companion to desktop data.
Until that happens, we can only sit here and grumble. :wink: Thankfully, there is a glimmer of hope. Curious how it didn't get mentioned in the Brighthand article as a partial solution at least?
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11-14-2002, 11:36 AM
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Magi
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 2,386
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This indicative of what has been my main gripe w/ PocketPC. I love the platform and I can't imagine life without my device, but why am I more trusting of 3rd party vendors than I am of Microsoft when it comes to PPC software?
My cynicism tells me that MS does just enough with their Pocket Outlook / Word / Excel functionality (for PPC2k, you can add Pocket Money to that list) to be able to advertise that they have these apps ready out-of-the-box, but not enough functionality to make it even slightly transparent with the desktop versions. I'm not one to say that the PPC should be able to support everything out-of-the-box; there is a tremendous market for quality 3rd-party software such as PI and AF to fill some of the functionality holes, but for goodness sake, providing a Word and Excel solution that can ruin your desktop Word and Excel documents is silly. Overall, I definitely don't expect MS to deliver on everything-under-the-sun (it would be unrealistic to ask that a pocket version of Excel do everything that the desktop version can do), but I wish they'd at least focus on increasing the quality of what they DO deliver (e.g. - alarms that "pop", applications that don't close, lack of decent task-switching, inability to support nested folders in "My Documents", cryptic connection manager, ActiveSync instabilities, etc).
Now I wonder about this TextMaker application. There is a lot of reason to get excited, but will MS just standby if they become wildly successful with software?
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11-14-2002, 12:40 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 414
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RE: "Just in case you didn't know, Palm kicks the Pocket PC's butt when it comes to working with Microsoft Office Documents."
Who are you and what did you do with Jason? Really, who is this. Come on. You can tell us. :lol:
If TextMaker does deliver there will be millions of far happier PPC users.
Since I don't use charts and most other business features in Pocket Word, and don't use Excell at all, I did not suffer with these shortcomings on my Ipaq. The graphics editing features are the ones I would want from TextMaker and they are not available on the Palm OS either.
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11-14-2002, 01:40 PM
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Swami
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 4,396
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Microsoft's Pocket PC Problems
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Originally Posted by ekkie
Overall, I definitely don't expect MS to deliver on everything-under-the-sun (it would be unrealistic to ask that a pocket version of Excel do everything that the desktop version can do), but I wish they'd at least focus on increasing the quality of what they DO deliver (e.g. - alarms that "pop", applications that don't close, lack of decent task-switching, inability to support nested folders in "My Documents", cryptic connection manager, ActiveSync instabilities, etc).
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I agree with most of these. However, most of the Microsoft applications seem to work with nested folders in My Documents (at least one level of nesting). Pocket Word, Pocket Excel, Notes, Windows Media Player, Reader and Pocket Streets all do.
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Originally Posted by ekkie
Now I wonder about this TextMaker application. There is a lot of reason to get excited, but will MS just standby if they become wildly successful with software?
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Actually, in this case, I think they might. Unless Microsoft believes they'll get more income from Pocket PCs by enhancing Pocket Word and Pocket Excel, why would they invest R&D money into improving them? Especially after the anti-trust verdict, it's important for Microsoft to show they're not out to kill off competiton, and it's not like TextMaker will threaten Microsoft's business (like Netscape and Java did).
Steve
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11-14-2002, 03:48 PM
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Editorial Contributor
Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 5,411
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Re: Pocket Office and the Truth About the 3rd Party Market
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Originally Posted by Jason Dunn
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MS does do Pocket Powerpoint, and Pocket Access too, for that matter. And yes they are as feature limited as our Word and Excel. For those that don't know, they are included on the HPC platform. Why not on the PPC, beats me.
I guess it is a possibility that decent Powerpoint and Access replacements were developed for the PPC because the MS versions weren't available, buit there are a couple of decent Excel replacements, and it was available.
I have heard it said that the MS philosophy on the Office products on the PPC was primarily to provide a way to read e-mail attachments. If that was true than it seems odd to provide a distinct PPC file format. It also seems a bit short sighted on the potential use people would put PPCs to. Not something I'd accuse MS of too often.
I'd be happy if I could just review office documents on the PPC without messing them up when they round-trip. Yes there are 3rd party programs for that, but it should have come with my PPC, or at least been available. (MS Office didn't come with my PC after all, I bought it).
Whatever I guess. Most likely it is a $$ thing. I think Pony99CA had it right. "Unless Microsoft believes they'll get more income from Pocket PCs by enhancing Pocket Word and Pocket Excel, why would they invest R&D money into improving them?" At least as an included item. Maybe they should have called it Pocket WordPad and offered a Pocket Office Suite for sale.
__________________
Sometimes you are the anteater, sometimes you are the ant.
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11-14-2002, 04:43 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Jun 2002
Posts: 390
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Somebody should re-do that brighthand test with SpreadCE and Textmaker. See how they both fare. The beta3 textmaker has been improved here and there i heard.
as of pocketPC. Microsoft should built a "plug-in" system for that suits. So third party can extend or add on top of that basic functions.
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11-14-2002, 04:49 PM
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Theorist
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 300
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Re: Pocket Office and the Truth About the 3rd Party Market
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Originally Posted by Sven
... Maybe they should have called it Pocket WordPad and offered a Pocket Office Suite for sale.
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My thoughts exactly. Pocket Word is really a stripped version of Wordpad, although even wordpad can do embedded graphics. The strange thing is, when I showed my mom MS Word 2000 a year or so ago, after she had been using Wordpad for a few years as her main word-processor, she didn't want it - it looked to confusing.
She actually likes Wordpad, because for what she does, it's quick and easy.
Maybe Microsoft should by that "TextMaker" app from whoever makes it (or buy the whole company, as is their modus operandus), and make it "Pocket Word 2003" or something!!! :-)
In the meantime.. I guess if I need the features, I'll be plunking down $ for it (maybe when my new PPC finally gets here... sigh... damn Viewsonic).
__________________
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11-14-2002, 06:43 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Oct 2002
Posts: 37
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Ok, I admit it: I used to be a major Palm guy. I'm ashamed.
However, I used multiple versions of Documents To Go and other Word/Excel-type applications for Palm back in the day. One of the features I always liked was the ability to specify which documents you wanted to sync, regardless of location.
I have a huge folder structure for documents, and often the files are in many physical locations (PC, server, another PC, etc.) and I could always sync the important files easily. I never had to dump all of the files in one place like "PocketPC My Documents". The best part was that when I updated anything in the Palm it correctly synced the document back on the PC.
Now, if I have something important to sync, I have to make a copy and put it in my Pocket PC MyDocs, and then if I make changes I have to copy that version back to the original place.
I just have never understood why MS dropped the ball when they made the Folders part of ActiveSync. ... :?
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11-14-2002, 07:03 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Apr 2002
Posts: 33
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I have stopped trying to figure out MS.
Who really knows what they do and why they do it? A Palm conduit for MS Entourage before a Pocket PC one? Draconian licensing schemes? Overpriced software? Crippled verisons of Word and Excel for PocketPC and Pocket Powerpoint is NON-FREAKING existant.
One day, Apple will rise up and solve all of this with an awesome PDA. Then I will be a total Mac guy! 8)
Hey UVAhoos, looks like the PocketPcthoughts community has a few ACCers in it, eh? Wait until basketball season - I am going to be tracking all the ACC teams on my new Maestro PocketPC.
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11-14-2002, 07:43 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 219
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It's not that hard to understand why MS has dropped the ball on this one. Merely look at the evolution
> Original Palm Device arrives...world goes crazy, they sell like hotcakes :multi:
> MS recognizes a new market... meetings occur, fists are slammed on tables, coffee is spilt, someone says..."We gotta DO something" :crazyeyes:
> Palm introduces next gen devices...world is still crazy about em, sales increase
> MS recognizes that the world is moving Fast ... meetings occur, project managers are canned for being slow with product dev, fists are slammed, more coffee goes flying, someone says..."I don't CARE...get SOMETHING out there!" (decisions are made to cut corners...like use Notepad logic to handle Word docs, etc.) :twisted:
> MS releases 1st gen pocket PC sw and OEMs like Casio take a chance... world says ho hum, here comes MS :sleeping:
> Palm continues to evolve the Palm...sales are still going up up up
> MS listens to the some of the gripes about rev 1 of Pocket OS, upgrades the piece of junk to do more, but can't take the time to do it right, so merely covers over the flaws with better gloss...
flash forward two years....
> MS says "Look, we own x% of market, whew...we're ok", and prod dev continues as a leisurely pace trying to get it right ...check back in 2004 for PPC 2004 OS !
It's classic MS strategy... never lead, just keep track of competition and offer just enough in response to continue growth of OS sales! :silly:
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