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

Yes.

[NetJunkie]

Usually the people in the tech industry don't. They get them for a toy and then don't use them. I didn't use mine much, so I gave it to my wife. She uses it constantly and keeps a lot of info in there. It's much easier than the paper system she had before.

At my office the directors and VPs use theirs like crazy. They'd be lost without them. The guys on my team (network team) don't use them much, since we don't have all the meetings and contacts to track.

My use has been on and off lately

[gaj]

I'm a Palm user. Have been for quite a few years. I was a Franklin Quest user before that. I'm one of those people that needs a planner of some type.

Lately, though, I find that my Palm Vx sits in its cradle most of the time. I still need the planner, but a palm-top is just too big a pain. I'm so keyboard-centered. I can use Graphiti just fine (faster than I can legibly write), but it is still to much of a shift.

For my next laptop I'm seriously considering an ultra-light such as the Fujitsu P2000 series. My previous laptop was a Sony Z505ls, and it was almost small and light enough. Too bad the base battery only lasted a hour and a half. Reguardless, something with the following features would be perfect for me:

1. useable keyboard (must be able to touch type easily on it. I'm willing to get used to a slightly smaller size than standard, but only if it isn't too far off
2. standard battery life must be at least 5 or 6 hours.
3. must run a Unix-like OS *well*, preferably Linux. By well, I mean that power management must be fully functional, and all hardware must be supported, with the only excepetions allowed being the internal modem, if there is at least one PCMCIA slot.

4. 1. Best fit I know of is the P2000 series. I think I could work with that. The Apple iBook is in the running, but all the samples I have examined have seemed cheap and fragile. Perhaps just perception. The keybards do have a lot of flex to them, though. Yuck. Also, sigle button "mouse" is a pain. (yes, I know I can define keys as mouse buttons. so what. when I'm using the pointer I want to use the pointer, not the keyboard, and vise versa)

      Anyway, that's my take. I still like the Palm the best of all the PDAs I've tried, and I still go through stages where I use I quite a bit. Perhaps if it were even smaller and lighter, like the new ones.

.....not a status symbol.

[jki]

"I think the PDA has become more of a status symbol than a useful tool."

You think so? I think atleast here in Finland the trend is beginning to reverse - if you carry a communicator - like I do - that is a sign of you being just a workhorse :) If you have the luxury of not needing it - then that's a real status symbol :)

Anyway, I don't think just the PDA functionality would be enough a reason for me to carry it. But when it is at the same time your only phone, and a use anywhere SSH client then there is enough value.

Many people do

[analog_line]

I have several clients who might as well have had their PDAs surgically grafted onto them. The first thing they need installed whenever they get a new machine is Palm Desktop.

I had a PDA for awhile, and there were a lot of neat things you could do with it, but it never really stuck with me. Toward the end of my use of my PDA (an older Palm) all I basically used it for was to play chess in the bathroom. Addresses I keep on my laptop, which is almost always on (or closed and asleep for quick access). It's much easier to take notes on my laptop than my Palm. Syching was always a pain in the rear.

Guess it just depends on the person. Some people just love them. Some people can't stand them. Different strokes for different folks. *shrugs*

All the time.

[jonabbey]

These days I'm carrying around a Sony SJ-30 model, running PalmOS 4.1. Color, 16 megabytes, hi-res screen.

What do I use it for? My calendar and address book, certainly. As a diabetic, I use it to record all my blood sugar readings. I have a very nice multifunction scientific calculator on it which I use all the time for anything for simple math or better. I have several games on it. I have a dozen e-books on it, which I read whenever I've got an idle moment. I have a dozen of my less-used passwords stored on it in a triple-DES encrypted form using Gnu Keyring. I use Plucker to download and carry around web clippings from national newspapers, and the Austin Chronicle's movie listings and reviews. I have several technical references stored as well, along with some utility calculators for special purpose conversions.

I carry my Sony around with me all the time; I would feel rather naked without it.

PDAs are pretty useless...

[alexandre]

personnaly i bought a Palm IIIx and after a year sold it and went back to pen and papers... (agendas) Syncing is annoying and the palm lose everything if you don't have fresh batteries.. i cant forget it in a corner for a long time. I did read some eBooks but it's not really worth it. I did have some fun with the software available but after a week you do something else :)

Re:Usage

[meta-monkey]

Same here. Really, I don't do much of anything else with my pda. I keep all my phone number in my cell phone, and my schedule in my head.

I always thought the idea of an ebook was dumb, before I got a pda. Then, when I got my HP Jornada, it came with a couple free ebooks, and I tried reading one. It was great! The screen's backlit, so I don't have to worry about light (I can even read in bed after my wife's gone to sleep), it's flat, so it's easier to hold with one hand, and I never lose my place. I've got 32MB (or is it 64? I forget...) so I can hold a few dozen books. I went on some file-sharing networks and found a few archives containing several thousand books, so every couple of weeks I put another 10 or 15 books on my PDA. Also, since I carry it around with me all the time, I always have whatever books I'm reading right in my pocket. Comes in really handy when waiting in line at the deli, etc. Now, if instead of having to buy a $400 pda to do this, if they could make a $75 ebook reader with a nice screen and large memory card, I'd be happy.

Creative PDA uses (yes, I use it)

[uncleFester]

I love my Vx. It serves a number of nifty litle uses..

• Surrogate laptop.. until I become re-employed (and buy my iBook) it subs as a laptop.. ok, more of a compact email/web terminal. Between PalmEudora and AvantGo/EudoraWeb I still manage to get my various mail/web fixes. I only wish I could find a better NNTP client than the few out there so I could sync ASR.
  
• Along those lines, AvantGo is great for snagging latest site content from news.com (I can hear the hissing here), AnandTech, BBC, Kernel Traffic (hey, you can roll your own), etc. Nice to read online content while sitting at a park, waiting at an airport, before going to sleep.
  
• With pocket telnet/term programs, it makes a GREAT serial console in a pinch. I've used my Palm to reconfigure ethernet stacks and capture kernel oopses (doing that right now to debug an aic7xxx error).
  
• Yes input can be a little cumbersome, but you can pick up a keyboard for ~$30 these days.. and I do a few journal entries.
  
• I think I have the PDF for Linux LVM1 and a set of release notes for Tru64 in there.
  
• When all else fails, I have a good Euchre program and DopeWars. :)
  

So yes, I still use my Palm. It's not as fancy or new as the latest crap, but for what it is and what it does, it is and does better than I expected.

Re:Usage

[DataPath]

I spend a lot of my free time reading ebooks, but I actually do PRODUCTIVE thigns with mine, too. As a college student, I have more classes and assignments that I can really manage to remember without some central way of tracking them. At the beginning of each semester, I take the syllabi (sp?) for all my classes and enter important dates in the calendar, and all assignments into the tasklist. It makes my life so much simpler. And while I'd be a liar if I said I never turned in an assignment late since, it's always been by choice, and never by accident.

Re:Usage

[Doc Hopper]

Everybody's entitled to my opinion. This week, I've read "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea", "The Hacker's Diet: How to lose weight and hair through stress and poor nutrition", P.T. Barnum's "The Art of Money Getting", and I'm partway into reviewing "Perl Programming" and Mark Twain's "Tom Sawyer Abroad". I did all this while riding the bus (an hour each way for work 5 days a week) and during the odd spare moment here and there.

All this on a little Palm M500 I picked up for $125 at the time. Yes, the screen is small. However, it's perfectly adequate for reading electronic books. My only worry is that I'll wear out the "down" button on the front of my M500.