10-17-2003, 05:00 PM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 8,228
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Throwing Down The Gauntlet
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/144310_palm17.html
Eric Benhamou, Palm's CEO, made some bold statements in Berlin this week.
"Palm Inc., the world's largest maker of hand-held computers, expects "in the near future" to gain users for its software from those who now use Microsoft Corp.'s Pocket PC operating system, its chief executive says. "We've received a lot of interest from people who up till now only considered Pocket PC," Eric Benhamou said in an interview at the European Technology Roundtable Exhibition conference in Berlin."
There is no question that PalmOS devices have some compelling hardware, especially in the area of screens, but they still lack the overall versatility that Pocket PCs have, especially when it comes to enterprise deployment. If you exclude the EM-500 from 3 years ago and the more recent 1910/1915, which both had very limited expansion capabilities, there hasn't been a Pocket PC that couldn't be integrated into most networks. They all support TCP/IP natively, have POP3/IMAP4 email support, ubiquitous, if limited, Pocket Office support without the need for desktop converters, etc. There are Palm devices that some of these features and others that don't. Some have it in ROM, others require you to install apps from the CD. Inbox solutions on the Palm aren't the same from OEM to OEM or even device to device sometimes.
Make no mistake though, Palm is poised to make inroads against the Pocket PC in both consumer and enterprise markets. Microsoft spent a whole lot of time basically porting Pocket PC 2002's UI to the newer Windows CE 4.2 platform. As a result, going from 2002 to 2003 looks like a minor revision on the outside but should pay off big dividends in the future. The Pocket PC team can now focus on the Pocket PC experience and not worry about basic things like incorporating Tap-And-Hold into the device. CE 4.2 has it. It is now up to Microsoft to push forward with the next revision, hopefully breaking the 320X240 screen resolution barrier and giving OEMs more room to innovate. HP is already doing so with the iPAQ 4300 series that has an integrated keyboard.
Palm wasn't doing much from 1999-2002 besides frantically working on OS5. They completed that and are pushing forward on OS6. Sony meanwhile has been wowing everyone with their hardware. During that time, Pocket PC made great inroads into the market going from 10% share to the mid 30% range. The next few years won't be so easy. Palm is no longer standing still. Your move Microsoft.
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10-17-2003, 05:06 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 450
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I for one hope he can come through on his statements. Microsoft and PPC OEMs need some stiff competition to get us out of the "stale" arena we've been in for a while.
- Aaron
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10-17-2003, 05:09 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 68
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Good comments. While I will continue to use my Ipaq and Toshiba for networking and GPS duties, I just returned to the Palm fold for my daily use. The T3 sucked me back with its large screen and landscape mode. I do a lot of spreadsheets so the extra functionality of Documents to Go, combined with a landscape display, are an unbeatable combination.
Let's hope Microsoft gets the message.
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Moderator
gpspassion.com
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10-17-2003, 05:13 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 153
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I hope this put little heat on Microsoft PPC team. They've been rather lame lately.
when intel bulverde comes out, they better have something BIG, instead of lame rehash. In the meantime, they can do few minor touch up. Todays' screen update sounds like a big hit to me.
On the Palm side, I think they are just doing PR interview fluff. Nagel just get cought spouting something that SonyEricsson denies. Acer, which was tauted as going to be a huge Palm player also hasn't shown anything since the mega announcement last year. So like anything Palm inc says. I want to see the stuff on the shelf, instead of bunch of interviews and fluff. I would also like to know what Sony is going to do with their dissapearing marketshare. That alone wil cost Palm 5-8% market share.
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10-17-2003, 05:57 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 108
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Yeah, I keep hearing all this stuff about Sony innovating blah blah, but has anyone else noticed the UX-50 has bombed completely?
Pity, because I love its' form factor but the implementation was terrible.
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10-17-2003, 06:01 PM
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Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 15,171
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by AhuhX
Pity, because I love its' form factor but the implementation was terrible.
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Sony's not one to sit still, though. You'll keep on seeing new models from them -- and if they believe in the UX50's form factor, you'll see a successor before long.
--janak
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10-17-2003, 06:12 PM
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Theorist
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 257
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The most exciting handheld devices to be released in 2003 for me are:
XDA2
Tapwaves Zodiac
Sony UX-50
Ipaq 4000 series
Tungsten T3
Ipaq 2215
Garmins ique GPS pda
I know everyone will have their own favourites but I would put mine in that order. Its a real surprise to me that 4 out of 7 are Palm devices - 12 months ago I would not even have considered a Palm.
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10-17-2003, 06:15 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,202
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I have actually already "made the switch" to the Sony UX-50, as my primary PDA. I don't know about it bombing, but the lancscape mode, combined with a usuable keyboard is what it took to sell me.
Note the UX-50 is far from perfect and if a PPC OEM could create a similar clamshell device I would change back in a heartbeat, but I wonder if MS will allow this to happen.
Biggest complaint with the UX-50 - insufficient program memory. It has to have the goofiest, most inefficient use of 104 MB of membory I have ever seen. Managing and moving programs on to and off of external memory is also a major pain, and of course necessary due to the lack of usable memory.
Whydidnt
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10-17-2003, 07:33 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 108
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by whydidnt
Biggest complaint with the UX-50 - insufficient program memory. It has to have the goofiest, most inefficient use of 104 MB of membory I have ever seen.
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Yeah that's part of what I was talking about. That and the flip, without it actually flipping the screen to portrait thing. Oh, a couple of other things I won't bother going into here. Gorgeous hardware, but just seems a really dodgy implementation of a great idea. I suspect this is because of mostly because of Palm OS's current limitations, so it's not really Sony's fault.
BTW When I said it bombed I'm only talking from my personal observations. Nothing factual to back it up. Just seems that way to me.
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10-17-2003, 10:26 PM
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Philosopher
Join Date: Jan 2005
Posts: 566
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by SandersP
I hope this put little heat on Microsoft PPC team. They've been rather lame lately.
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I suspect the PPC team itself probably works pretty diligently to provide as good a product as they can with the resources they're provided. ("resources they're provided" being the operative phrase there).
But I also have this sneaking suspicion that 'the suits' at MS might tend to agree with the recent statement out of Toshiba that 'the pda is dead'. I'm thinking they view the future of mobile devices as incorporating the PPC Phone Edition and Tablet PC's...with the pda disappearing from the market. *IF* that's the case, I hope they're wrong. "But"............
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-= Sass =-
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Linear Mode
