Pocket PC 2002

Microsoft is holding some sort of launch event today for a pile of new Pocket PC devices. Pocket PC Thoughts has a bunch of news items; PDA Buzz has a report and pretty comparison chart looking at the different models, and I'm sure people will post more links in the comments. So, is this the mighty Palm-killer?

Comments

battery life?

[cruelworld]

10 hours? Do people really put up with 10 hours of operating battery life? My palm pilot used to last over a month of regular use (before it met an unfortunate end with Mr. Pavement.)

I've even read one review where the guy was gushing about the GPS receiver with the colour screen and how he could use it to on hikes and trial rides. With 10 hours?

Are none of the new handheld companies doing anything about this? Do consumers not care?

Palm Killer

[FatRatBastard]

So, is this the mighty Palm-killer?

Not according to IDC they're not. (Of course, how much weight you give the likes of IDC, Gartner, et al will temper this report).

I think the downturn doesn't bode well for PocketPC (nor Palm, frankly). PocketPCs seem to be geared towards business users (WAY too expensive for the average folk) and I wonder how willing business are going to be to plunk down a lot of money to take full advantage of what the PocketPC PDAs can do.

Palm are getting it in the shorts due to economy and saturation, MS will get it in the shorts due to the economy and the dubious usefulness of PocketPC devices beyond niche applications.

Re:snooze

[szcx]

and not if you're forced to listen to Windows Media (barf) instead of MP3

Windows Media Player on the Pocket PC plays MP3's just fine. Unlike Handspring, Pocket PC users have a choice when it comes to supported media formats.

Re:The Palm is already dying

[dachshund]

I'm sitting here next to my Palm and Ipaq. The Ipaq is dusty, I haven't even bothered to charge the thing in a couple of weeks. Reason? It's useless for serious work. I can't tell you how many times it's crashed on me (taking out all of my configurations, files, and network card drivers), when I'm somewhere very far from my backup computer. Did I mention that the ActiveSync software doesn't automatically back up your file system whenever you sync? Maybe it could, but I can't find a way to make it so.

It's a neat toy. I had a great time playing with it, setting it up, etc. Then I got down to actually using it, and it's not worth the trouble. Very few of the applications are worth using, web browsing is a hassle with a tiny screen (even a nice color one.) The only apps left that I was interested in were mail and typical filofax-type-stuff. All of which were handled by my Palm (which rarely loses information and has a longer battery life.)

And for all the gadgetry, I still can't mount an external drive via the network connection. What a useful feature that'd be... Too bad.

I hate that this is so. Maybe someday they'll get it right, but they haven't yet. Go ahead and spend your money if you want a cool gadget, but gadgets get boring after a while unless they're useful.