Tuesday, November 4, 2003
Pocket PC Futures: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
Posted by Jason Dunn in "ARTICLE" @ 09:07 AM
Here's another point of view on the future of the Pocket PC, this time from DonS over at bostonpocketpc:
"It always seems that life is a sort of balancing act, with good often countered by bad. The future of the Pocket PC platform is no exception, with some indicators from the last couple of weeks providing a hint. CTIA Wireless IT and Entertainment provided one such insight. While it is a "wireless world" out there, the new frontier in wireless is the cellular industry. As carriers are encouraged to make data affordable and derive profits from "additional services" (like premium content and exclusive access sites), cellular wireless is quickly becoming the "gold rush" for developers of content and applications. For this industry, the phone is the method of communication in terms of form factor. While the Pocket PC (and Pocket PC - Phone Edition) can serve the needs of some, the majority of users prefer their content displayed in a form factor they are accustomed to when working with a handset. As a result, many developers (myself included) are having to look at the entire mobile industry for economic survival. As a result, the concentrated efforts by many to develop strictly for the Pocket PC platform may change, and the development of new applications may suffer. There is some solice in tools like AppForge MobileVB in the fact that they develop in one language and allow the deployment to a number of mobile platforms."
"It always seems that life is a sort of balancing act, with good often countered by bad. The future of the Pocket PC platform is no exception, with some indicators from the last couple of weeks providing a hint. CTIA Wireless IT and Entertainment provided one such insight. While it is a "wireless world" out there, the new frontier in wireless is the cellular industry. As carriers are encouraged to make data affordable and derive profits from "additional services" (like premium content and exclusive access sites), cellular wireless is quickly becoming the "gold rush" for developers of content and applications. For this industry, the phone is the method of communication in terms of form factor. While the Pocket PC (and Pocket PC - Phone Edition) can serve the needs of some, the majority of users prefer their content displayed in a form factor they are accustomed to when working with a handset. As a result, many developers (myself included) are having to look at the entire mobile industry for economic survival. As a result, the concentrated efforts by many to develop strictly for the Pocket PC platform may change, and the development of new applications may suffer. There is some solice in tools like AppForge MobileVB in the fact that they develop in one language and allow the deployment to a number of mobile platforms."
