12-03-2003, 01:00 PM
|
|
Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 8,228
|
|
Palm's Creativity vs. Windows' Compatibility
http://www.businessweek.com/print/magazine/content/03_49/b3861037.htm?mz
"While Palms are evolving into new and intriguing shapes, handhelds using rival Microsoft's Pocket PC software seem stuck in a rut. There are dozens of strikingly similar Pocket PCs that basically come in two flavors: those that double as phones and those that don't. The result is that consumers looking for the most innovative products are going to find a lot more to choose from in the world of Palms. For example, the first Pocket PCs with built-in keyboards are just starting to appear -- two years later than in Palm-based products...There's a downside to all this creativity in Palmland. A game created for the zodiac won't run on any other product, in part because Tapwave uses a unique, PC-like video adapter to get maximum performance in action games. Garmin modified the operating system itself, a step Microsoft would never allow, to get better GPS performance. "It's slightly chaotic in the short run," says PalmSource CEO David Nagel. But, he adds, everyone benefits when individual licensees' improvements are rolled into the next version of the PalmSource software."
No one questions that some PalmOS devices are really cool in their designs, but ask the average person to pick out a PalmOS device with features X, Y and Z and they will be stumped, standing at the CompUSA PDA counter like a kid in front of a candy stand trying to pick just one candy bar. Take WiFi for example. With the exception of the iPAQ 1910 and maybe a low end Toshiba or two, there aren't many Pocket PCs that aren't WiFi capable. More and more have it integrated, but those that don't can slap in any number of compact flash or SDIO WiFi cards and be up and running within a few minutes of installing drivers. Palm OS devices? Yeah, most have SDIO or other IO capable slots, yet the diversity of devices is making writing drivers difficult. San Disk has given up on WiFi for the millions of Palm OS 4 devices like the M500 series. They are trying to get the SDIO WiFi card working on Palm OS 5 devices but have delayed 4 times. Now it will be Q1 2004. San Disk has removed all evidence from their web site that they are even working on a Palm OS version of the product, presumably so they can quit postponing it and just release it whenever, if ever, it is done.
Meanwhile, you've been able to get the card since it became in available in August for Pocket PCs, along with drivers for 2002 and 2003 devices that support SDIO. That is but one example. Want multimedia? You get Windows Media Player on approximately 100% of Pocket PCs. On Palm devices, you might get a multimedia player, it might be in RAM or ROM and it might be one of any number of third party products on the CD that comes with the device. Versatile, or just confusing?
How about voice recording? How about Office compatibility? How about full screen handwriting recognition? How about multitasking? Oh, never mind. You don't get that on any Palm device, simulated multitasking notwithstanding. :wink: What do you think? I know you want some more innovation in hardware. We all do. Would you give up some of the simplicity and comfort we currently have being able to switch from device to device at will and know that a base set of features, a rich base set of features, will be on any device carrying the Windows Mobile logo? Can you imagine the level of frustration a user might experience if their favorite software program didn't run on their new Pocket PC because the OEM modified the OS as Garmin did to PalmOS? I know as an MVP I'm glad that the only thing I have to keep up with as far as hardware goes is what extras the OEMs pack in. I don't have to worry about which spreadsheet product comes with each device or which ones support voice recording and what apps are used to do the recording.
I think the iPAQ 4300 series with the integrated keyboard is among the first in a series of hardware releases that begins to break the mold that Pocket PCs have been cast in. This is what OEM's design departments are screaming to do. Let Microsoft keep control of the OS. It makes it easier all around. I'll venture to say we'll have some pretty impressive and innovative hardware long before Palm gets the universality back in their platform that they haven't seen since Palm OS 3.5.
|
| |
|
|
|
12-03-2003, 01:53 PM
|
|
Pontificator
Join Date: Oct 2002
Posts: 1,051
|
|
I hate to be a wet blanket, especially since I agree with most of what Ed say's, but my issue with PPC is not one of functionality. It's a question of reliability. I get tired of wondering whether my alarm will go off. It's a pain in the a&% to be scrambling to get the bus in the morning, only to have active-sync fail, etc.
More compelling hardware would be nice, but I'd be happy if the PPC simply handled the basics with a much higher degree of reliability. Once that happens, I could give a darn about hardware design.
|
| |
|
|
|
12-03-2003, 01:58 PM
|
|
Oracle
Join Date: Dec 2003
Posts: 830
|
|
Well thats all true. I sold my 3955 last nov. for a tungsten t, the newest most advanced pda available. It had crappy software at first, poor compatability, poor audio, but a very small size. I sold it that may for a ppc. I waited, and waited, and got a 2215 from calif 5 days before release. I sold my ipaq 2215 in oct for a tungsten t3 and hated it. The button arangement was near unusable in games and the multimedia sucked. So then i got a clie nx73v. It was far too difficult to convert media and to transfer it on to the unit. After the clie i said forget palm os AGAIN. I now have a 4155 and love it. I still miss some of palm os' software so im getting a zodiac. (as a 2nd pda) But ppc is by far better for me.
|
| |
|
|
|
12-03-2003, 02:17 PM
|
|
Ponderer
Join Date: Jan 2005
Posts: 93
|
|
I agree with Ed, that from a developers's perspective, I would rather have a stable platform to develop for. But I also luv new hardware. I have one of the new Toshiba E800s with the 480 x 640 screen and it is an example of what we will experience in the future with new hardware expanding from the current standards for the PPC.
When you first get the E800 there is only one application on it that Toshiba allows you to use in the hi-res mode. When you go to hi-res mode they disable the OS menu system so you cannot try to use the other programs.
Naturally someone created a hack to get around that little restriction! 
Now we can run all those programs and guess what. A lot of them will not work! Since they are not designed to use that size screen. And some them work great on that screen. Ironically most all of the Microsoft programs work great on the hi-res screen.
So if MS does, as it is rumored, change the requirements for PPC hardware to allow higher res screens there are going to be a bunch of people out there jumpin mad because their favoriate application(s) do not work on the latest PPCs!
There is something to be said about standards. They serve a purpose. But they also can be restrictive enough to stifle inovation. It is a difficult fence to walk for MS.
|
| |
|
|
|
12-03-2003, 02:21 PM
|
|
Mystic
Join Date: Dec 2003
Posts: 1,639
|
|
I happen to agree with many of the comments regarding the PPC hardware. The design has been in a rut for some time and I'm happy to see that there are signs that things are changing.
The two models that currently have built in keyboards are certainly not examples of creative design (Sony as well as Sharp do this ten times better) but it's a start.
I personally would not go back to POS even though I like the hardware. My PPC with it's two expansion slots and fantastic applications isn't something I'm going to give up on.
Hopefully next year is going to bring us new models that will seriously compete in the design arena.
__________________
Cheers!
David
|
| |
|
|
|
12-03-2003, 03:04 PM
|
|
Pupil
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 11
|
|
As an iPaq user and a Treo 600 user I have to say that I am really torn on this one. I started with the Nino (color) and then went to the Palm Vx and subsequent Handspring Prism. Every time I have gone back to Palm, the biggest reason was for the compatibility of all the software. Windows CE had too many different processors and variations to use all applications reliably. My how times change...
Now the table is turned. I have this wonderful Treo but I do encounter problems trying to get all software to work on it (of course, I have to have patience, it is new). But there is no need for all devices to do all things that may not be important to all people.
Voice recording on a Pocket PC is something that I have never used.
Office compatibility has always been hampered by Microsoft's own implementation which strips your documents to shreds, making way for a Palm product to dominate in this area.
Full screen handwriting recognition is available to Palms, although, in most instances it's a letter at a time. (Never did like that on my iPaq because if I wrote a screen of stuff, some of it would be so screwed up that I felt I wasted too much time correcting it).
Multitasking is something that is limited on the Palm, but Microsoft's implementation of "smart application closure" leaves much to be desired.
Innovation is great, but to really sell, give the masses what they truly need so that these things become more mainstream and hopefully save the industry as a whole. An example is the Sidekick, which is light years behind both Palm and Pocket PC in functionality, but people are buying it because it delivers what the masses really need (phone, calendar, contacts, messenger, e-mail, and web). It also brings just enough innovation to get the geeks to take notice! The first camp to get that formula right in the future might be the head-turner!
|
| |
|
|
|
12-03-2003, 03:04 PM
|
|
Sage
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 713
|
|
MS seems to take a lot of flak for limiting the design of PPCs in the name of stability, but most of the design stagnation is in other areas. Until this year we didn't have PPCs with: built-in keyboards or built-in cameras. And, as far as I know, we still don't have PPCs with built-in covers (a la the now defunct HP 548). Except for the new pair of Toshibas all PPCs are silver and/or grey. They all come with basically the same software (each has a smattering of proprietary stuff, but nothing to make it stand out of the crowd while perusing them at BestBuy or CompUSA).
PPCs compete only on price, size, expansion, and built-in WiFi or Bluetooth (the latter of which is hardly a significant selling point to 99.9% of non-techie consumers), and brand recognition.
None of these items is mandated by MS. I think its time that the OEMs quit playing it safe with merely trying to come up with smaller/faster devices and try to take the lead like Sony did with the design of POS machines. Perhaps this is what Toshiba is doing with their new line of devices. Too bad they irked so many customers with their WM2003 upgrade policy.
|
| |
|
|
|
12-03-2003, 03:42 PM
|
|
Intellectual
Join Date: Nov 2006
Posts: 148
|
|
Re: Palm's Creativity vs. Windows' Compatibility
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Ed Hansberry
How about voice recording? How about Office compatibility? How about full screen handwriting recognition? How about multitasking? Oh, never mind. You don't get that on any Palm device, simulated multitasking notwithstanding.
|
Ed, your criticisms the Palm OS are a bit out of date. Quite a few offer voice recording, Office compatibility on par with the Pocket PC, and full-screen text input. What you said was true... until about a year ago when the Palm OS made the jump to ARM-based processors.
You saying these things now about the Palm OS is the same as if someone wrote today that all Pocket PCs are too big and crash too often. While these complaints may once have been true, they definitely aren't any more.
We do agree in one area, the very limited multitasking offered by OS 5 is hobbling the platform. The fact that you have to wait while your email is delivered is irritating. We'll have to wait and see if PalmSource can add multitasking to OS 6 without making it a crash magnet.
As I understand it, the delays in the release of the Palm OS version of the SD Wi-Fi card have to do with companies arguing over licensing, not any technical problems. But you are correct, until this card comes out, there are far more Pocket PC options for Wi-Fi than Palm OS ones.
|
| |
|
|
|
12-03-2003, 03:46 PM
|
|
Pupil
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 19
|
|
The article sounds pretty accurate.
I've been using Pocket PCs since 1998 or 1999. My Jornada 568 is now dying. I'd like to replace it with a combination phone/PDA that is more PDA than phone. Much as I'd like to get a Pocket PC-compatible device, after reading specs on what's out there, it sounds as if the Treo 600 might be the best solution. The Pocket PC solutions seem to be yesterday's technology. The XDA II sounds fantastic, but I'm unwilling to mortgage my kids for the purchase price, to import it from a country that I can't even locate on a world globe, and mess around with SIMs, unlocking, and a host of other phone terms that I don't even understand.
If anyone can suggest a good choice for the Pocket PC, I'd love to hear it.
|
| |
|
|
|
12-03-2003, 04:23 PM
|
|
Ponderer
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 70
|
|
Every body will always have a favorite.. I choose Pocket PC not for Microsoft but because it works best for me. I currently use the Hitachi G1000 with an excelent builtin keyboard and phone. One thing I would like to see is the opporating system become generic like windows for a desk top. That way when a new version comes out every one is eligable for an upgrade, the hardware mfg can then offer a service pack for a specific device to add customization if desired.
Dan
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Linear Mode
