For the second time this week, I have to correct something I said in this
thread.  Earlier, I stated that I thought the Pocket PC's market share was
25%, where Duane used the figure of 30%.  I was under the impression that
Palm had about 65-70% market share, down from virtually 100% a year or so
ago.  Well last night, I watched Fox News, Neil Cavuto was interviewing
Steve Balmer of Microsoft who had just finished doing the introduction of
Pocket PC 2002.  Fox runs captions with complementary information during
their interviews.  One caption came up saying Dataquest was pegging the
market share of Pocket PC at 41% and PalmOS at 43%.  What a shock.  It
further stated that Compaq was generating more revenue than Palm in the PDA
space.  Granted the iPAQ is twice as much as the Palm, but it was still
amazing.  The Palm and the Pocket PC are running neck and neck.  I suspect
with the introduction of Pocket PC 2002, the fate of PalmOS is very much in
doubt unless it shakes itself up.  I understand Palm has bought Be Computing
and is promising something new at the end of 2002.  That's a long way away.

This morning I spent some time researching this on the Internet.  It seems
the Compaq iPAQ has really become very popular and the HP Jornada has also
increased tremendously in popularity.   There are also rumors that Palm may
be coming out with a Pocket PC PDA to jump on the band wagon.  They would
not abandon the PalmOS, but simply position it at the low-end.  It also
seems the Pocket PC has made the largest inroads in the enterprise
(commercial) market, whereas the Palm still maintains a (diminishing) edge
in the personal market.

I would say at this point the momentum is definitely on the Pocket PC side
and Palm is retreating.  One must remember however, that Palm has a huge
installed base, but the devices are very cheap and easily discarded.  I
wonder how many people still regularly use the original Palms or even ones
from just 2 years ago.

There is a third player in the Palm Size computing space and that is Psion
with EPOC.  They are much more popular in Europe than over here.  It is my
understanding they are making noises about exiting this space.  That would
be sad, alternatives are always good.

One last observation.  It was mentioned a few times that the battery life of
an iPAQ is much less than a Palm.  That is very correct.  However, I am
always amazed how quickly the iPAQ recharges.  The Lithium Polymer battery
is outstanding.  You can also extend the battery life tremendously if you do
not use the backlight (but then it starts to resemble a Palm.)


Kind regards,

Denys. . .

Denys Beauchemin
HICOMP
(800) 323-8863  (281) 288-7438         Fax: (281) 288-7438
denys at hicomp.com                             www.hicomp.com

-----Original Message-----
From: HP-3000 Systems Discussion [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of
Peter da Silva
Sent: Wednesday, October 03, 2001 5:32 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: PocketPC vs Handheld PC (was Wildly OT: Simple math question)

In article <[log in to unmask]>,
Denys Beauchemin  <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> When it came to synchronizing with my laptop, it brought a new
> meaning to the word incompatible.  When I started losing contact entries
on
> my laptop, the Palm Pilot went in the drawer.

You were using Outlook, no?

Surprise surprise, Microsoft's handheld syncs better with Microsoft's
contact manager. On the other hand, Palms sync perfectly with Palm Desktop,
and can *also* sync with Outlook, and pretty seemlessly with Notes.

Me, I've had Newtons and the old Casio A10. Then I got a Visor, and an
iPaq, and a Jornada. None o fthem are quite a laptop replacement, and
I haven't found one device that does everything I need.

I had an iPaq. It's so bulky I might as well be carrying my Toshiba
Libretto,
especially when you throw in sleeves and a case big enough to hold the
sleeve,
and it does a lot more than the iPaq.

I could never get Transcriber or Calligrapher to handle my handwriting
reliably... so I needed to use Microsoft's graffiti-clone anyway.

I switched to the HP Jornada. It's much more compact, but slower, and it's
still only really happy syncing to Outlook. I've tried to get it syncing
with
Notes, but it locks up too often for me to be really happy with that.

> In conclusion, if you haven't seen a single thing that a PocketPC can that
> you would want on your Palm, you haven't looked very hard.

I like the larger screen, and the multitasking makes telnet more convenient,
and Pocket Internet Explorer is a pretty good browser. I wish Pocket Streets
was more reliable: Mapopolis is a little slower but the maps are way better.

--
 `-_-'   In hoc signo hack, Peter da Silva.
  'U`    "A well-rounded geek should be able to geek about anything."
                                                       -- [log in to unmask]
         Disclaimer: WWFD?

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