Microsoft Pits Pocket PC Against Palm

DeepDarkSky writes "Microsoft unveiled the Pocket PC today. Products being available by its partners include: HP Jornada, Compaq iPaq H3600, Casio Cassiopeia E-105 and Symbol PPT 2700. Microsoft's touting it as being better than Palm. Here's a list of features, significant among them: Microsoft Reader (for reading e-books), Windows Media Player (for playing music), Pocket Streets (a map program), Pocket Internet Explorer, and "Pocket" versions of office productivity tools like Outlook, Word, and Excel. " Check out the preview on C|Net as well.

Comments

Re:A quick review of their comparison

[konstant]

Greydmiyu, for the record I own a Handspring Visor and neither want nor can afford a Pocket PC. However, your post (which by now certainly has reached Score:5) dips pretty deeply into the realm of self deception.

Just listen to yourself:

PocketPC has better email than Palm, but that doesn't count because you don't think retrieving email on the go is important.

PocketPC has better color than Palm, but since you spend all your time outside, you don't care.

PocketPC has more memory than Palm, but "something tells you" that it doesn't matter.

PocketPC is about 10x faster than Palm, but you have a feeling that this is irrelevant. Anyway, 20MHz is enough for anyone.

PocketPC doesn't require extra attention to sync, but that doesn't count because the buzzname they're using resembles a technology you don't like.

PocketPC has more sophisticated handwriting recognition than Palm, but that doesn't count because it's completely reasonable for people to learn how to write twice simply in order to use a PDA.

PocketPC allows voicerecording at no extra charge, but that doesn't count because you can't imagine anyone will ever want to record sound in a meeting.

PocketPC has superior and more intuitive mapping technology, but that doesn't count because real men use astrolabes.

PocketPC has better music support, but that doesn't count because everyone should have at least two wallet-sized silicon devices on them at all times.

PocketPC incorporates ClearType to a better eBook experience, but that doesn't count because, hell, it's all just text.

PocketPC supports more sophisticated games (I've seen a cutesy little DOOM) but that doesn't count because you've got pong when you need it.


-konstant
Yes! We are all individuals! I'm not!

Couldn't disagree more

[konstant]

In the Wired article somebody cites below, I found this quote that I feel is fairly similar to the opinions being voiced on slashdot:

"I think it's going to be more of the same," said Michael Mace, Palm's vice president of product strategy. "They are trying to cram a whole PC in your pocket and that's not the way to do it. It makes for a limited PC and an overstuffed handheld. If you want to make a successful handheld you have to figure out what matters most and only put that in."

That certainly is one way of looking at things - what you might call the developer's outlook on software. Keep it simple, flush out the flaws, and eschew unneeded complexity. If that means forsaking some flashy end-user features, so be it.

I couldn't disagree more. Come on people, what is the ultimate goal for handhelds in your world? In 10 years, do you want us al to be using Palm MCXXIII's with 24-bit color and wireless internet but still running minimalist PIM software?

Or, do you want a device that is a gameboy, cellphone, MP3 player, memo pad, PDA, camcorder, phaser :), etc. all in one slim form factor?

The problem with Microsoft's offering in the handheld market is emphatically *not* that they give the consumer too much. The problem is that they aren't delivering stable lean software. Microsoft incorporates into the Pocket PC's many of the things that ultimately I dream of using in my PDA. They are *far* ahead of the game technologically speaking. But their implementation sucks (at least it did in WinCE, and the C|Net review suggests it still suffers from those problems).

Palm by contrast, is, yes indeed, very stable. And also is not likely to enrich our lives with fantastic new consumer technologies. Contacts are contacts. Appointments are appointments. They are useful, but are they really what you crave when you think about embedded palm-held technologies? If the sluggish rate of Palm's software innovation is any judge, this form of competition from Microsoft is precisely what the industry needs.


-konstant
Yes! We are all individuals! I'm not!

There's a deceptive line or two in their release..

[Chairboy]

>unlike the Palm, which offers limited Internet
>accessibility with "Web Clippings," the Pocket
>PC, along with a modem, allows you unlimited Web
>access

They fail to mention that the Palm, along with a modem, also allows unlimited web access. Web clipping only applies to the Palm VII, a wireless capability that the PocketPC doesn't even have.

It's a non-statement, and deceptive.