It was a time of great turmoil. The strong preyed on the weak, dogs
and cats lived together. One voice cried out in the wilderness: Harry
<harrysmith03@hotmail.com> wrote in
<4mk1q05u2vjln2qet34n6hasnsq0nc9jk8@4ax.com>:
> I have been a Palm OS user for at least 5 years now. I am about to
> renew my Sony Clie and I am currently undecided whether to go for an
> HP IPAQ or stick to a Palm OS. I noted that the Pocket PC has recently
> gained a lot of grounds on the Palm OS in terms of sale figures. Is
> this anything to go by????
Yes and no.
The main reason that PocketPCs are "outselling" PalmOS devices is the
popularity of the Treo 600, which because it's a cell phone is not
counted in handheld sales statistics even though it is believed to
have accounted for over half of PalmOne's sales last year. When you
arbitrarily remove half a million units from a company's sales
figures, it's going to look bad even when it's still in good shape.
On the other hand, there's a reason for the Treo 600's popularity.
PalmOne is really concentrating on the cell phone market. As a result,
you can probably expect most of its handhelds to be in the mid-level
range like the Tungsten 5. If you can't live without Wi-fi, Palm's
only integrated solution is the year-old Tungsten C. You can pay extra
for an SD card that will add Wi-fi to your Palm device but most
PocketPCs have it built in as a standard feature.
Other than that one big ace in the hole, PocketPCs don't have many
advantages. They're getting smaller but the smallest Palms are smaller
than the smallest PocketPCs. There are models with huge, beautiful VGA
screens but they cost much more than even the most expensive Palms and
most PocketPCs still come with 320x240 screens -- giving you 25% fewer
pixels than the typical modern Palm which costs less than $200
American. And if you want a PDA/cell phone, no Microsoft solution can
match the Treo 600.
So if you want Wi-fi and multimedia, get a PocketPC. If you want a
PDA/cell phone, get a Palm (Treo). If you just want multimedia get a
Palm. If you just want a good PDA, get a Palm.
--
Roberto Castillo
robertocastillo@ameritech.net
http://www.freewebs.com/robertocastillo/
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