Thursday, February 19, 2004
Rick Broida's PDA Prizefight on C|Net: Who Hired This Referee?
Posted by Jason Dunn in "ARTICLE" @ 04:03 PM
"Microsoft may rule the desktop world, but in the battle for handheld supremacy, it's still anybody's game. Found in handhelds from PalmOne, Kyocera, Sony, Samsung, and other manufacturers, the Palm operating system has held a market-share advantage since the beginning, but Windows Mobile 2003 (née Pocket PC) is no longer just nipping at its heels; it's nipping away at its sales, as well. But if you put the Palm OS in the ring with Windows Mobile, which PDA operating system would survive the bout? Is one notably stronger than the other?
To find out, we booked eight rounds of PDA pugilism, pitting Palm OS 5.2.1 against fast-rising challenger Microsoft Windows Mobile 2003 in categories such as ease of use, Office compatibility, and multimedia features. For the most part, we left the hardware outside the ring, as features such as battery life and processor speed vary widely from model to model across both platforms. The operating systems threw some seriously powerful jabs, and the winner may surprise you."
An interesting article, but one look at who wrote it and I knew what the outcome would be. Rick Broida was part of the Handheld Media Group, and a writer for Handheld Computing Magazine - a very Palm-biased magazine. He's also the author of several Palm books ("How To Do Everything With Your Palm" and others). In short, he's about as qualified to do a comparison as I would be. :roll: That is, not very - I'm too Pocket PC biased, and he's too Palm biased. There are indeed some areas where the Palm trumps the Pocket PC (screen resolution being one of them), but this article is full of inaccuracies and "warm fuzzies" for Palm.
For instance, as of last year there were over 13,000 Pocket PC software listings in Handango (I don't have a current figure) - a heck of a lot more than "several thousand" as Rick suggests. Sure, some of them are themes, eBooks, etc. - but the Palm catalogues have the same type of "non-application" entries. And so much of Rick's comparison is based on "the applications just aren't intuitive" - what he really means is "This Pocket PC just doesn't work like my Palm". Anyway, go give the article a read and tell me what you think.
To find out, we booked eight rounds of PDA pugilism, pitting Palm OS 5.2.1 against fast-rising challenger Microsoft Windows Mobile 2003 in categories such as ease of use, Office compatibility, and multimedia features. For the most part, we left the hardware outside the ring, as features such as battery life and processor speed vary widely from model to model across both platforms. The operating systems threw some seriously powerful jabs, and the winner may surprise you."
An interesting article, but one look at who wrote it and I knew what the outcome would be. Rick Broida was part of the Handheld Media Group, and a writer for Handheld Computing Magazine - a very Palm-biased magazine. He's also the author of several Palm books ("How To Do Everything With Your Palm" and others). In short, he's about as qualified to do a comparison as I would be. :roll: That is, not very - I'm too Pocket PC biased, and he's too Palm biased. There are indeed some areas where the Palm trumps the Pocket PC (screen resolution being one of them), but this article is full of inaccuracies and "warm fuzzies" for Palm.
For instance, as of last year there were over 13,000 Pocket PC software listings in Handango (I don't have a current figure) - a heck of a lot more than "several thousand" as Rick suggests. Sure, some of them are themes, eBooks, etc. - but the Palm catalogues have the same type of "non-application" entries. And so much of Rick's comparison is based on "the applications just aren't intuitive" - what he really means is "This Pocket PC just doesn't work like my Palm". Anyway, go give the article a read and tell me what you think.
