Tuesday, June 15, 2004
Do Handhelds Have a Future?
Posted by Ed Hansberry in "ARTICLE" @ 10:00 AM
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1611918,00.asp
"Rats. I finally get around to buying a handheld computer, and I start seeing headlines like "Is the PDA dead?" I should have seen this coming. We covered the news this month that Sony is halting production of its Clié line of handhelds for the rest of the year—and maybe for good. The announcement came in the wake of market research that shows declining PDA sales for the second consecutive year."
I think this gets into the definition of "what is a PDA?" I think the classic PDA that Palm made famous with the first Palm Pilot is a dying breed. Enterprises certainly have no use for a PIM device that requires the user to go back to their desktop to synchronize data when so many options are available that have significant processing power and wireless connections that make it as easy to sync from around the world as from down the hall.
Consumers have little need for PIM only devices too as phones are increasingly able to handle simple and complex PIM tasks.
But what about more powerful devices? Low cost devices like the iPAQ 1940 series that include bluetooth or more expensive devices like the iPAQ 4000 line or Axim X30 that have some combination of bluetooth and/or WiFi? What about PDA/Phone combos, like the Treo 600, the XDA or the forthcoming iPAQ 6000 line?
Do handhelds have a future? I think they do, but it isn't the same PDA you had three years ago. It can't be. The market will move beyond that - a lesson Palm learned perhaps a few years too late. I doubt we really know what the handheld device of 2007 will be capable of, much of which will depend on the wireless infrastructure in your area.
"Rats. I finally get around to buying a handheld computer, and I start seeing headlines like "Is the PDA dead?" I should have seen this coming. We covered the news this month that Sony is halting production of its Clié line of handhelds for the rest of the year—and maybe for good. The announcement came in the wake of market research that shows declining PDA sales for the second consecutive year."
I think this gets into the definition of "what is a PDA?" I think the classic PDA that Palm made famous with the first Palm Pilot is a dying breed. Enterprises certainly have no use for a PIM device that requires the user to go back to their desktop to synchronize data when so many options are available that have significant processing power and wireless connections that make it as easy to sync from around the world as from down the hall.
Consumers have little need for PIM only devices too as phones are increasingly able to handle simple and complex PIM tasks.
But what about more powerful devices? Low cost devices like the iPAQ 1940 series that include bluetooth or more expensive devices like the iPAQ 4000 line or Axim X30 that have some combination of bluetooth and/or WiFi? What about PDA/Phone combos, like the Treo 600, the XDA or the forthcoming iPAQ 6000 line?
Do handhelds have a future? I think they do, but it isn't the same PDA you had three years ago. It can't be. The market will move beyond that - a lesson Palm learned perhaps a few years too late. I doubt we really know what the handheld device of 2007 will be capable of, much of which will depend on the wireless infrastructure in your area.
