Do People Really Use Their PDAs?

TAL asks: "With Dell entering the market with their new PDA, the PDA market appears saturated. I work in a high-tech industry and I see more people carrying their PDAs than actually using them. At the same time, I see many people actually going back to their paper planners. I've ran the PDA gauntlet myself and have found that much time is wasted syncing, charging and reinstalling the software. Have there been any studies on PDA turnover? I think the PDA has become more of a status symbol than a useful tool."

Comments

I agree...

[wumarkus420]

When I first got my Palm, people marveled at the chance to look at all the phone numbers I could store at one time. I even kept it in my pocket at all times and tried to incorporate it into my wallet (pretty tedious with the original Palm). However, within a couple months, I was only using it to play Galax. I eventually gave it away to my girlfriend, who also used it for a week or two before deciding it really wasn't worth it to have this giant thing for the purpose of only storing phone numbers and playing the occaisonal game.

So then I get a CE device from work. I thought I would give PDA's another chance. While this time, I had color and ethernet, and a decent media player, it fell prey to the same problems at before. I stopped using it within a month and it now sits in a drawer never to be used again.

I think PDA's are cool, but no matter how much I want to like them, they just aren't useful.

Re:I agree...

[Wellspring]

I've seen this, but I think it has more to do with the device than with the notion of using PDA's. With Palm and M$ equivalents, you have to use graffiti. Any handwriting is a fairly onerous chore. Also, you have to poke around on the screen to do searches and app navigation.

With the Blackberry you don't. So with that said, I am a major RIM fan (I'd imagine that the Good Technologies or Danger devices ought to be about the same). People get addicted to the Blackberry: they call them Crack-berries.

When I had a RIM for my last job, I used it constantly. I responded to important emails as soon as they came in, religiously added people to my address book, and kept my entire personal and work schedule in the calendar (which meant, it popped into Exchange at work, too.)

For all its flaws, the one test of how useful it is is "Do I use it?" Hell, yeah. Constantly. Without having it now, I feel more than ever how my schedule, dinners with friends, my dragonlance game, birthdays, etc. was always at my fingertips and accessable.

OK, so what made blackberry different? The little minikeyboard was a better data entry system than a touchscreen. A jog dial means that everything has the same UI and you control it all from your thumb. The built-in wireless was slow, but communicated in the background constantly, so you didn't have to cradle except for recharges (once per week or two: I've had mine last for three weeks). The wireless coverage footprint is incredible, but the device continues to work fine withotu coverage... it just catches up when you pop back in. It is a durable device that you keep on your belt: it turns on when you take it out of its holster, then turns the screen off when you put it back in. No frills: no color, no music, no filesystem, nothing that drains power, makes the device more complicated, and adds 'coolness'.

That's the message. The more cool the device is, the more it trades away essentials. If you want an MP3 player, buy a dedicated device. If you want a phone, buy a phone. If you want a PDA, decide what you want to run. For me it was email, schedule, address book, and a memo to jot stuff down in. RIM was perfect. Your mileage, of course, may vary.

I agree

[n__0]

Seems people are trying ot find reasons to use their pdas once theyve got them. Realising they aren't as useful or as easy to use as they thought. My dad picked up one a few months ago and a lot of the price of the ipaq that he got seems to come in afterwards with memory expansions and interfacing wires etc. He doesn't need to interface it to everything, it jsut seems he needs to justify why hes got it and having gps and camera photos on their is really a status symbol.

Need too much discipline.

[monadicIO]

I found that I needed to be too disciplined to use my PDA for tasks that I'd use it for like todo lists and phone,contacts. I got a free one sometime ago. I tried using it but found I was spending more time trying to organise my life in the PDA. I gave up shortly finding that it was more convenient to forget things than to spend time and energy inputting every thing in the PDA.

Now if only I had a personal human analog assistant inputting everything into my digital one.

Not Really

[toomz]

I sold my PDA. People who first buy PDAs vow never to part with them. Soon you notice them sitting on the desk all the time next to the desktop computer.

Sometimes

[occamboy]

It depends on the mode I'm in.

Sometimes I'm fortunate enough to be working on one project with undivided attention. Then I usually don't carry my PDA -- it's easy to remember what I should be doing.

When I'm in my more scattered mode (meetings-R-us), my PDA is a godsend, keeping me on track.

In the past, I've always carried my PDA while travelling because of the address book feature. But I've just purchased a cell phone (Motorola V60i) that allegedly syncs to my Windows address book, so the PDA might not be as necessary for this purpose anymore -- we'll see.

palm Vx used daily for 3 years +

[wilton]

I've used my palm Vx nearly everyday for last 3 years. The ONE thing keeps me using it is the rechargeable battery, and LONG battery life. If I had to run out to buy a set of AA every week I would have stopped using it. The Long battery life of 3 weeks on a full charge is great for extended trip. Palm Vx and mobile with infrared means I can keep checking emails quickly and easily.

Avantgo is another program for adding value. Free editions of all main magazines and newspapers. Defiantly payed for itself that way.(Economist, Wired, Guardian, BBC)

PDAs are useful for the right person

[ArmageddonLord]

I got a PalmV about 2 years ago. In college I find it extreamly useful tracking my schedule, homework, quick notes to myself, professor's contact info and office hours, etc. I seriously couldn't live withough it. However durring the summer durring my internships I find it quite useless. I no longer have such a complex schedule and all the company info is already on my PC. So why bother with the PDA? A PDA's usefulness depends really on what you need it for.

You said it yourself

[ektor]

I work in a high-tech industry and I see more people carrying their PDAs than actually using them.

If people carry them is because they use them. Sure, you can carry some gadget for a week for its novelty factor but if you don't use it sooner than later you will stop taking it with you.

Having said that PDAs are not for everybody. Unless you spend certain amount of time away from you desk and in need of contact information, scheduling or some specific application maybe a PDA is not for you.

Personally I love my XDA especially because I have my email always updated anywhere I go. I don't use it as a phone very often but when I do it works very well although certainly not as well as a normal cell phone.

Not to knock PocketPC, but...

[dachshund]

So then I get a CE device from work. I thought I would give PDA's another chance

On top of that, the PocketPC devices-- despite being way more powerful and generally cooler-- are much less suited to the basic tasks of a PDA (storing numbers, calendar, etc.) They're just too big, eat too much battery, and the software isn't as concise as Palm's.

I really thought my shiny iPaq would be a great replacement for my Palm and my laptop, with it's ability to handle an 802.11 card (and Ricochet back when that existed). Turned out that it was an enormous and inferior substitute for both, and it crashed a lot with the network card in. Now I don't use either, because I'm dissatisfied with the inflexibility of my Palm and the flaws of the PocketPC.

Theyre all missing something

[Proc6]

PDA's will possibly be useful for the long haul if they would keep slimming them down, upping the battery life, but most importantly, they ALL... and I mean ALL Of them, have to have at least 802.11 but preferably some kind of always on cellular (or other type) connection to the net. The net is what makes most every computer useful, (what do you do with your PC when your net connection is down?, other than play games). So a PDA without a 24/7 nailed up connection to all your other PCs, office, home, and web, to me, is just really missing the boat. And Im not talking about some deck of cards sized wart you can plug into the top. It needs to be inside, invisible, and functioning all the time. Then Id stop putting mine in a drawer.

Carrying it

[Anonymous Coward]

The real obstacle is carrying it. In order to justify using it, you basically have to commit to having it with you all the time. It's very all or nothing. Since my cell phone keeps phone numbers, I don't really need a pda anymore, and I don't mind carrying my cell phone. However, I HATED carrying my pda. It's way way way too huge. Even my cell phone is almost too large, and it's one of the smallest on the market.

Basically, the only thing I used my pda for before was storing numbers. Since I have a cell phone, I don't really need it anymore. PDA's generally have an advantage over cellphone in the synching department, but that's about it. They're way too cumbersome to take notes. And, now that most cell phones give you voice memos, you can leave yourself a voice recording of a telephone number or the name of someone you met, which is infinitely superior to using a stylus. The only improvement over that, would be voice recognition that would automatically convert a memo that contained a telephone number and a name into a contact entry in your cellphone.

Just not useful enough.

[Anonymous Coward]

There are 3 main uses for a PDA...organizer, entertainment, and net access.

As an organizer, I find that it's just not convenient enough. As a previous poster had pointed out, the interface is far too cumbersome (unless a real keyboard is added, which makes me wonder why I'm not carrying a sub-compact notebook at that point).

Entertainment is pretty much limited to games that aren't much better than the ones I play on my TI-89...so why carry another piece of hardware? I'd rather have a good calculator that plays lame games than a crappy calculator that plays nearly-lame games.

Portable net access is the only decent use of a PDA. Checking movie times and e-mail while on-the-go just turns me on. Logging into a shell is a bit of a pain however...

Personally, I'd rather shell out the extra cash for a decent cell phone and sub-compact notebook. Sure it costs more, but you get FAR more functionality.

Yes, if you stretch the definition

[Anonymous Coward]

If you count a device that's always with you that contains phone numbers, appointments, and a calculator as a PDA, then I've been using one since 1989. Some people have been at it longer than that.

This is no trick, and I am talking about electronic solutions, not a clipboard with a calculator strapped on.

I'm talking about Casio databank watches. My first two both had body failures where the pins for the band are held in, but the actual brains never failed me. The models they started selling around 1997 have EEPROM so you can even change out the battery without losing the data. I've done it twice and it functioned as advertised.

Now they're hawking yet another version that will receive WWVB from Fort Collins to sync the time. Considering how much time my current watch gains in a month, it might just be time to upgrade again.

Four watches in 13 years doesn't seem so bad. Total investment? About $400, plus another $5-10 for those replacement lithium cells.

If you always wear a watch anyway, why not?

Sony Clie...

[bretth]

I've been using my Sony Clie every day for the last 6 months. In the past I've owned 2 palms, a Newton, a cassiopeia, an ipaq, and the clie. The Newton was probably the most useful - except for the size. It's size made it nice to write on, but a pain to carry around (still a beautiful piece of technology though). The Ipaq has a great screen, but runs wince and I can't easily carry it in my pocket. The best organiser I've ever had has been the clie. It's got a nice clear color screen and fits in my pocket. The case is pretty scratched from my keys. It has been a pain getting it to sync with Linux, but it's working now. If you have a device running PalmOS, I'd defintely recommend installing DateBk5.

Absolutely

[Anonymous Coward]

I got my PDA primarily so I could have easy, light weight access to all those little bits of information that occasionally come up: Phone numbers, addresses, which was the last issue of Girl Genius that I read, etc. I bought my Handspring Visor two or three years ago, and even then it was an older model. Today, I take it everywhere I go - because I need it: It reminds me of things I have to do. I have ready access to all those little bits of info I mentioned. I can actually answer my parents when they ask "are you doing anything the weekend of ___?" Not to mention being able to catch a little reading while I'm waiting in the lobby at a restaurant.

Re:I'm carrying my PDA

[chamenos]

personally, the games in my nokia phone and the built in organizer is all i'll ever need. a year or two ago, a friend of mine passed me a PDA he won in some school competition, and i carried it around for a week or so before i got tired of it.

every once in a while when i need to remind myself to call someone, do something or be somewhere, the organizer in my phone is more than enough. it lets you set the event and its time, and the time you want the reminder alarm to go off.

to be honest, i'm not all that organized a person and i rely mostly on my memory, so that might be a reason why i didn't have much of a use for a PDA. i noticed that most geeks aren't exactly organized, what with the huge pile of papers and other misc items their desks are usually cluttered with. if that's representative of most of slashdot's reader demographic, then most probably the majority of slashdot users don't have a need for PDAs. most just buy it for the cool-gadget factor, in my opinion.

so before you go out and get yourself a PDA, ask yourself if you even have a paper organizer now. if you can live without the organizer, you definitely can do without the PDA, since the latter is just an electronic version of it.

Re:Usage

[belroth]

Worse, we use Novell GroupWise - probably the worst piece of arse email/groupware product on the face of the earth

My nominations for this award are, in second place Lotus Notes, a monumentally crap piece of software, exceeded only by DEC TeamLinks (which has been known as TeamStinks for very good reason).
Actually you could reverse the order and I wouldn't complain, they are both utter sh-one-t.

My PDA frees my time

[Mark Programmer]

The single most useful feature of my PDA is the planner alarm... I wouldn't be able to maintain a schedule without it. I never got into the habit of checking my paper planner regularly, and I have a real serious tendency to let the rest of my day slip my mind when I get into a project... my Palm III's little chirp (custom-made with some MIDI software, so I never confuse it with someone else's PDA) sucks me back into reality and keeps me from missing meetings or jobs for sheer forgetfulness. I love being able to let my mind focus totally on the now, knowing my "assistant" will notify me when I should be doing something else.

When I first got my Palm, it was my toy... but now it's my tool. I've been able to afford my PDA on a student's salary by always buying behind the tech curve (still on a Palm III, use WriteRights from Fellowes to preserve screen life). I only sync about once a month, and on full-backup (Palm overwrites computer)... that way I never have to ask myself "Now where did I put that phone number?" I could lose some data if my Palm dies, but there's always paper if I have to...

So I'm one of those people who keeps his public life in a little belt pouch on his hip. It frees me from having to keep it in my head all the time... in fact, the faceplate on my Palm III pretty much says it all.

"My other brain is organic."

Too much dependency on technology

[scsiboy]

I've gone from the Newton to Palm III to two Handspring models. When I started to find myself regularly writing Graffiti symbols on paper, and finding myself completely unable to remember a damn thing without my PDA handy, I gave it to my wife to play card games on and haven't used one since. That it was able to affect my basic ability to remember things scared the hell out of me, frankly.

I stuck with a paper calendar on my wall for quite some time, but recently started using iCal for that, and the OSX Address Book for contact info. But I haven't found them causing any problems remembering things - probably because if I'm not at my desk I still have to rely on primitive technology (my brain). The only mobile device I rely on is my cellphone, and I find myself entering numbers manually more often than I use its phone book except for numbers I only call once in a great while.

Re:Why I Used My PDA and Why I Stopped

[alanh]

The limiting factor for syncing most PDAs is the speed of their connection. The Palm IIIxe and earlier palms use a standard serial connection to sync. All the current Palms (except the m100 and m105), all the Handsprings, and all of the Sony CLIEs use USB for syncing. USB is _far_ faster than the old style serial connection.

Re:.....not a status symbol.

[Anonymous Coward]

I can see that being true, but most of the U.S. really hasn't caught up to Finland in gadgets like cellular and wireless usage yet, so it is possible still to be flashy with a PDA here. I guess it depends on the model :)

Personally I never had a use for the things. I would prefer a pad of paper for notes and a laptop for full computer functionality. Not some hybrid organizer/game console to carry around as baggage.

It depends on lifestyle.

[Elwood P Dowd]

It absolutely only depends on the way you live your life. The PDA is a good solution for some people, and a really crappy one for other people. This was illustrated to me with my ipod.

I got one as a cheap bonus with my ibook during my senior year in college. I used it *everywhere*. Since I walked to and from everything I did, it was permanently inside my jacket, frequently synched with my newest music, always synched with my contacts.

Then I graduated and started driving to work every morning. The ipod immediately offered me nothing. Sure, it can play in my car stereo, but with a 20 minute drive, I may as well play MP3 CDs. I didn't use it for months.

Now I've got a new job where the commute includes a 40 minute ferry ride and a 15 minute walk, each direction, every day. I'd shoot myself without my ipod. But I never use the contacts/scheduling features because I can do all that with my PC at work.

Blah, blah, blah. The point is, PDAs, or any other such device, are useful if your life fits their uses. They don't conform to you. You shouldn't conform to them either. If you're a homebody, drive only between work and home, or home and the bar, your PDA isn't going to do anything for you. If you constantly find yourself not having your information when you need it, get a PDA. This is, at max, like 5% of the population.

Your entire life?

[twoslice]

It doesn't have wireless or color, but it has my life on it.

Your whole life... Wow, and I can't even fit my entire Pr0n and MP3 collection on my desktop system with an 80 GB drive. Oh wait, actually that is my life. Now that is sad...

Paper is Cliche

[msheppard]

Saying that you can do everything you can do with a PDA with a pad of paper and a pencil is completely CLICHE. It's more a "status symbol" saying you don't need one, and that you use paper and pencil.

It's going to be very hard getting honost results on any poll about who uses them becuase 'the man' doesn't want that data to become public no matter what it says.

Personally, I use mine for all the stuff they market them for, plus reading eBooks and astronomy stuff. Given time a lot more people will have PDA's than computers, once they replace the need for a computer. They are already as powerful as some sucesful personal computers.

Really, I'm suprised slashdot would stoop to this level. Maybe it's a joke and I didn't get it?

M@

Not a job issue...

[Christopher Bibbs]

but a question of style. My style used to be to rely upon my wife for tracking every bit of important info. Phone numbers, dates, to do lists, she had it all up in her head. Sound weird? Well, maybe it was.

The point is, some people don't like to be organized and others do. If you like to be organized, the first trick is to find a system that works for you. Any time management class will teach you that. What works for 95% of the world may not work for you which is why we have options.

Re:Constantly

[Annamite]

but it has my life on it.

And you still haven't seen the problem yet? Need a cluestick?

Re:I don't know about "studies"

[disappear]

What you need is not a PDA, or planning software, but Thoreau's doctrine: "Our life is frittered away by detail ...Simplify, Simplify."

That was easy for him to say: he sat in his cabin and wrote all day, and had Ralph Waldo Emerson's wife make cookies for him, feed him, and in general do all those day-to-day chores for which he had no interest.

(Really, I'm not making this up...)

Still going strong

[Anonymous Coward]

I still use mine. Not every day, but several times a week. I use it for addresses, phone numbers, appointments, outlineing ideas & notes (the only software I've bought for it does outlining).

I'm lost without it as my portable memory. I don't see the point in trying to put a whole PC into a tiny handheld - the interface is too limited & it sucks down batteries like nobodies business. The folks I know who've dumped their PDAs entirely are the ones who only ever used it to keep phone numbers, and they all have cell phones now (I don't - but that's my atavistic quirk), and their phone handles that.

I think cheap PDAs (< $250) will have a place for a long time to come for people who don't need to haul around a whole computer all the time, but need to keep track of more than a list of phone numbers.

Re:I don't know about "studies"

[Stinking Pig]

Sorry, but the first thing that pops to mind is: Well, duh.

If you don't storm castles, a catapult is of no use.
If you don't need to build something out of steel, you probably don't have an arc welder.
If you don't have to juggle too many pieces of information while driving/flying hither and yon, then you don't need a PDA.

I didn't have one when I was a student. I did have one when I was an SE. I don't have one now that I'm on a long-term contract with a single company, but when the contract is over and I need to have my calendar and more phone numbers than my cell can handle in my pocket beeping to remind me what I'm doing now, then I'll get another one.

Re:Usage

[Dun Malg]

I use mine all the time.... to read eBooks

DAmn straight. I use mine for keeping track of technical installation info at job sites (I install telecom systems), but the most important thing my Palm M500 provides is reading material while I'm taking a crap.