X-no-Archive:yes
> You are right, I did not specify some of the reasons for the success of
the
> PPC.  Since you ask, I will list a few.
Thanks!

> I depend heavily on communications, email and web access, in my work and
my
> travels.  I get all that with my laptop, but since I am lazy I never
wanted
> to have two systems such as a featherweight laptop and a robust desktop
> system.  When you do that, you get into issues of synchronization and the
> fact you do not have everything you need when you travel and blah, blah
Whereas, right now, some folks just need to replace a Day Timer. That
appears to be what Art Frank and Walter Murray want. We had a VP whose one
challenge was that his "admin assistant" could schedule an appointment while
he was out of his office, and he would also schedule a conflicting
appointment. That's a no-win. Whoever made the "losing" appointment loses
some credibility. Still, having one's calendar & contacts "everywhere you
want to be" is * why * I bought my wife her PalmPC. And once I showed her
document synching, she started keeping simple wordpad docs such as grocery
lists on hers. But when she's at home, she only uses the PC for these.

But doesn't W2K offer some network synchro features, to address just this?
I've never used these features, but I assumed they were a next generation of
My Briefcase, ActiveSync web folders, etc.

> So several years ago, when the mobile disk drives hit the gig, so to
speak,
> I concentrated on having one system, a desktop replacement laptop.  The
> current one I have is the 3rd iteration of this phase and with a proper
> docking station, lots of memory and a large monitor (21 inch,) I can do
> anything I want on that notebook.  And when I leave the office, out it
comes
> and into a case it goes.
And this is also where the Tablet PC might hit. It has the advantage that,
as a desktop replacement, you can have all your software and documents with
you. Having documents on a LAN is pretty common, so there are the options of
synching off the LAN, or using a Wireless network card (maybe this will
drive down their prices, which increases acceptance, which...). Having apps
on the LAN is presumably still less common. In one's office, there's still
the wireless NIC option. If the app is needed outside the office, I see no
other choice but to install locally (and there's probably an idea for a
Dilbert strip in this).

> The downside of desktop replacement notebooks is they are inherently large
> and fairly heavy.
Which is why I don't see CE going away in favor of Tablet PCs, as I once
thought it might. And then, there are all the embedded systems, like set top
boxes and cell phones.

> Several years ago, I got a Palm Pilot, thinking this would do everything
for
> me and in a small format.  I hated it. ... The Palm Pilot has been in a
> drawer for several years, useless and unused.
eBay it.

> With the
> impending release of Pocket PC 2002, I decided to delay the final version
of
> the article, because I wanted it as up to date as possible.
Please let us know when you publish.

> I think connectivity is the single most important component on which the
> wonderful synchronicity of the platform is built.  This synchronicity is,
> for me, the "killer app" of the Pocket PC platform.
I had better not express any more opinions about market share, at least
nothing quantifiable. But just this thread has made clear that intelligent
people can want different things from a class of solutions, and choose them
for different reasons. I wonder if Stan would find a Tablet PC to his
liking. Also, Duane Percox offered some fact, but little commentary, little
about what he thinks of Palm Pilots or IPaqen. Since QSS develops for these,
I would expect their view to be less personal, and therefore less biased.

> Using my wireless iPAQ, I go to
> pda.continental.com and I can do everything I want in a nice Pocket PC
> format; minimum junk and maximum information.  Now we are cooking.
I keep reminding folks here to take these applications much more seriously.
Thus my campaign to use my cell instead of carrying a pager; my cell's SMTP
is actually in our Outlook GAL, along with a small number of others. I
cannot fathom using cells for outgoing text messaging, but clearly there's a
market for it, and a company that provides IT & consulting services (such as
ours) ignores markets at its own peril. Granted, I'm in the Data Center
Service group, and it's not our charter to stay on the bleeding edge. But
its foolhardy not to at least be aware of where that edge is.

I just spoke to a friend who got to the airport (Logan International, no
less, and with an e-ticket, such as they are now), to discover that the page
he had grabbed from his print-outs was not his itinerary, but something
entirely useless. He wasn't even sure which airline he was flying (yes, we
both agreed that this was a breathtakingly stupid thing to do). He could
have looked up his account on the travel web site, had he had the means, and
of course, he did not (although once inside, I'm sure one can find an
Internet kiosk for rent). Just about any wireless application, even on his
cell-phone, would have been better than what he had, which was nothing. Then
again, I'm sure he could have pasted that info into an appointment in
calendaring software, and synched that into a Palm Pilot, or any other
similar device.

Greg Stigers
http://www.cgiusa.com

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