Is The Pocket PC Coming Or Going?
There are conflicting reports in the trade press regarding the viability of the PDA as a platform. Analysts range in their predictions for PDA’s, from imminent demise, to a bright future. What is the real situation?
The apparent conflict in the data seem to revolve around various definitions for exactly what is a PDA. For instance, one major analyst, IDC excludes Pocket PC Phone Edition from the PDA category and terms it a smartphone. Gartner, on the other hand, includes what they term ‘cellular PDA’ (e.g. Pocket PC Phone Edition, Treo) in the overall PDA category. Gartner reports increasing PDA shipments for the second quarter 2004, while IDC reports dropping PDA shipments for the third quarter 2004.
Perhaps the Pocket PC Phone Edition, not popular with some as being clumsy, is now gaining popularity as the much desired ‘converged device’ integrating PDA functionality with voice communications.
I think Microsoft got it right several years ago when they designed two brands for converged devices. One brand, the Pocket PC Phone Edition (PpcPE) is first a PDA, but with with telephone capabilities. The other brand, the Windows Mobile Smartphone, is first a telephone, but with PDA capabilities. One important difference is the PpcPE is able to run any Pocket PC application, whereas the Smartphone’s ability to run programs is often controlled by the cell phone carrier, allowing only those programs approved by the carrier and digitally signed. Other differences include touch sensitive stylus input, a larger screen area, and a more powerful CPU for the Pocket PC Phone Edition device. All of that comes at the expense of a physically larger device and less convenient phone usage than the Smartphone device.
The ultimate converged device that does both PDA and telephone duty equally well, is yet to arrive on the market. The Motorola MPx is probably the one announced device that is closest to the ideal, but it still has not been deployed. Because of its enhanced feature set and very cool ergonomics, it likely is both an engineering challenge and expensive to manufacture. This is a very enticing Pocket PC Phone Edition device, usable in both portrait and landscape modes, and with a full QWERTY keypad built in. It was announced by Motorola in late February 2004, but no carrier offering is yet in sight.
The cell phone carriers here in the US have been quite active with the Pocket PC Phone Edition, with recent announcements by t-Mobile with the HP 6315, Verizon with the Samsung i700, Sprint with the AudioVox PPC-6601, and Cingular / AT&T with the Audiovox PPC4100 and Siemens SX66. Many of these offerings have built-in or add-on keyboard support. Only the Siemens SX66 supports the landscape mode of Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition.
Meanwhile, the Microsoft Smartphone effort here in the US is finally catching on, with selected cell phone carriers making more units available. Although analysts are predicting a big market for the Smartphone, the Pocket PC Phone Edition will continue to fill an important market need.
P.S. Are you developing an application that needs landscape mode but can’t wait for more devices to be released? Not to worry, Aton International, Inc., the company I work for, has landscape mode technology with an extended soft keyboard available that can be incorporated into Pocket PC business applications as required. Click here for more information.
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