11-12-2004, 09:00 PM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 8,228
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More On Microsoft's Lead In The Handheld Market
http://news.com.com/Microsoft+grabs+lead+in+handheld+market/2100-1041_3-5450022.html?tag=prntfr
"Shipments of handhelds that use Microsoft's Windows CE operating system rose by about 33 percent to about 1.4 million in the third quarter, compared with the same period last year. Meanwhile, shipments of handhelds that use the Palm operating system shrank by 26 percent to 851,000. Research In Motion showed huge growth, with shipments jumping more than 356 percent to 565,000 to round out the top three, the research company said.
This is more details from the Gartner report that we discussed a few days ago. I've always heard after posts such as this that no matter what the results were, PalmOS still was number one. Not anymore, having fallen from a lofty 80%+ just 5 years ago to today's levels. Maybe this is why pa1mOne is considering other operating systems like Windows Mobile and Linux. PalmInfoCenter has even more details.
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11-12-2004, 09:33 PM
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Theorist
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 298
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Re: More On Microsoft's Lead In The Handheld Market
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Originally Posted by Ed Hansberry
Maybe this is why pa1mOne is considering other operating systems like Windows Mobile and Linux.
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Not that it matters. PalmOne doesn't make handhelds that are exciting. I suspect any PalmOne device running ANY OS to be just ok.
Everyone knows Sony was the good Palm company. Remember the complaints before Sony jumped in and started doing cool stuff with Palm devices?
Now they're gone, and it's just boring old PalmOne.
I think instead of thinking a new OS will save them, they need to rethink their whole strategy.
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11-12-2004, 09:35 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Nov 2004
Posts: 11
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Palm is going down, I'm sad to say
Until about three weeks ago I was a Palm user and have been since the very first Palm Pilot came out. When they put out the Tungsten T5 with no wifi and still on OS5, etc, that was the last straw for me. Despite my investment in 3rd party software for PalmOS, I switched. And I'm very glad I did. I never would have thought I would abandon Palm but I think the writing is on the wall. It's too bad but I think it's becoming obvious to everyone. Geez if even a die-hard like myself has switched, that's gotta say something.
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11-12-2004, 09:50 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 50
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I totaly agree. palmOne (or Palm) was always a very very boring company usually delivering very vey buggy products (first baches of V, m505, TT, T3, T5).
whereas sony always delivered what promised, with virtually no bugs, everything was extremelly well made. a real magnesium alloy body was a significat plus in my books
eventhough I was always palm os fan, I had only my first palm III from them. then I realized that they are always behind the competition.
I bought trg pro which had CF slot and I could put there ethernet CAF card, wifi CF card etc. then came sony with 320x320 resolution, followed by great units like TG50 with built in keyboard & bluetooth. or the best PDA I've ever owned UX50, which was a trully great design and powerful unit. still very smally a light (come to thing of it it was made of magnesium and no cheapo plastics). these days are gone .. as is palm os gone ..
sad but true, however, WM was also driven by palm os, with things like bigger resolution, rotation function etc.
now when WM2003 SE is rock solid and all major bugs of previos versions have been sloved, OS supported rotation is here. there is no way one can regret buying PPC.
but it was obvious that MS is going to take over PDA business sooner or later. the same will happen with nokia and its symbian vs MS smartphone edition.
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11-12-2004, 10:07 PM
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Theorist
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 298
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by orol
but it was obvious that MS is going to take over PDA business sooner or later. the same will happen with nokia and its symbian vs MS smartphone edition.
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I honestly hope it doesn't. Unlike the desktop, handhelds are an area where other companies have the opportunity to really take a hold. I'd like to see new players with different ideas and designs flourish here.
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11-12-2004, 10:09 PM
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Mystic
Join Date: Nov 2006
Posts: 1,887
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Extra details at:
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/techinv...lmsource_x.htm
Of note:
"The robust Microsoft Windows CE market has been driven in part by the wide choice of vendors," said Gartner analyst Todd Kort. "Business customers tend to steer clear of markets dominated by a single supplier, which is where the Palm OS market stands today," he said.
Linux remained a distant fourth and lost market share as it is running on only 0.9% of handheld computers, down from 1.9% a year ago.
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11-12-2004, 10:11 PM
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Mystic
Join Date: Nov 2006
Posts: 1,887
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by sub_tex
Quote:
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Originally Posted by orol
but it was obvious that MS is going to take over PDA business sooner or later. the same will happen with nokia and its symbian vs MS smartphone edition.
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I honestly hope it doesn't. Unlike the desktop, handhelds are an area where other companies have the opportunity to really take a hold. I'd like to see new players with different ideas and designs flourish here. |
Simple prescription:
Do the job better than MS and its partners.
MS has strengths and weaknesses like anybody else.
And its partners screw up as often as anybody else.
They can be beaten.
Unless you screw up over and over and over and alienate your customers and software developers.
Funny thing, most of MS opponents end up doing exactly that...
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11-12-2004, 10:25 PM
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Neophyte
Join Date: Oct 2004
Posts: 8
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I still can't understand why anyone would want a PalmOS handheld in the first place even if the hardware is a cool design or has cool features. I started with a Palm and as soon as I graduated to an iPaq I would never turn back. They still don't even have a decent multithreading OS out yet. I just read about the Cobalt OS (which isn't available on handhelds from what I understand) and even it is still not up to snuff compared to the PocketPC OS.
Oh well it doesn't matter, there are some great PocketPCs out there anyway and now that they have VGA capabilities they are moving further ahead into the forefront.
People can complain all they want about MS but only liked the PalmOS until I tried a Pocket PC.
It's nice to see that people are finally coming to their senses and buying a pocket PC even if it is because Sony closed shop. Too bad they don't enter the Pocket PC world and shake things up...NOW THAT would be cool!
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11-12-2004, 11:10 PM
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Sage
Join Date: Oct 2006
Posts: 797
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I'm guessing that "shipments" means shipments to stores, not directly to consumers. If that's the case, why is this number significant? It doesn't account for sell through?
I'm really asking, not being sarcastic; this is just something I've always wondered about.
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11-12-2004, 11:19 PM
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Neophyte
Join Date: Oct 2004
Posts: 8
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but it doesn't mean they don't sell.
I am not sure handhelds are the same as CDs, newpapers and magazines where you can ship them back if they don't sell. Computer retailers usually only have what they can sell on stock since the computer depression of 2000-2001. I may be wrong but I doubt they would overstock these kinds of items.
It would be interesting to know the "actual" numbers though.
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