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Death of the PDA?
An anonymous reader writes "The Economist has an article proclaiming the death of the PDA. Smart phone sales are predicted to overtake PDA sales this year."
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If the phone has all the properties of a PDA, isn't this a moot point?
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By the way. .
FIRST POST!!!!
"No beer until you finish your tequila!" -Leela's Dad
Palm Zire 21 - $99 USD
Kyocera 7135 Smartphone - $499 USD.
Until they can close this gap, PDAs aren't going to be dead. And a $400 difference is going to take more than 1 year.
Propz to GNAA
Why the hell would you want to do PDA type stuff on a PHONE that is the size of a peanut with a screen the size of a stamp?
'Standards' in computing only impress those who are impressed by things like 'standards'.
I had a PDA given to me and I found it quite useless. They are generally for business men and people with busy lives that need to keep track of all of their appointments, etc. I, for one, have no need for that. Now on the other hand computers and phones are of greater use to a broader population. I think that explains it.
The article is really predicting the death of PDAs that aren't integrated with phones. This is quite different that the death of ALL PDAs.
All the article is saying is that PDAs will include another feature. PDAs are evolving. Very few things stay the way their were originally intended. Did computers die when we switched from punch cards to keyboards? Not quite. They're still computers, they just aren't exactly what they used to be.
especially the PDAs running *BSD. they are *really* dead
I don't see the point in a distinction. Is it a PDA with phone capabilities? Is it a phone with PDA capabilities? Either way, if this happens, I wouldn't consider it a "death" but an evolution in what technologies and packagings people decide fits their lifestyles the best.
Just because a radio was integrated into a clock doesn't mean that radio died then, although maybe I wish it did.
Besides, I doubt that PDAs will merge ONLY with cell phones: PDA functionality is usefull and will be used virtually in all personal devices. And some of those devices will be far away from being called "a cell phone": watches, MP3 players, cameras.
Also, I am sure PDA functionality will expand from wearable devices to... drivable one? I always wanted to have my Palm being built-in to my car dashboard instead of being lost anywahere in my car.
Less is more !
The laptops of today do all the things a desktop is supposed to do, but occupy less space.
All proclaim the death of the desktop computer!
The PDAs of today do all the things a laptop is supposed to do, but occupy less space.
All proclaim the death of the laptop computer and, indirectly, the desktop computer!
The phones of today do all the things a PDA is supposed to do, but occupy less space.
All proclaim the death of the PDA computer and, indirectly, the laptop computer and, indirectly, the desktop computer!
We've been told that sub-notebooks are about to replace the notebook and "desktop replacements" are about to replace the desktop for years now. It hasn't happened yet.
Will smartphones replace PDAs?
When smartphones, like the latest batch of Ipaqs or Toshibas, support bluetooth, wifi, multiple I/O capable expansion options (CFII+SDIO) and an extensive list of peripherals, sure.
Maybe "laptop" and "desktop" and "PDA" describe nothing but a form factor. But that's probably the best argument there is for their mutual survival. There's no reason the PDA form factor with PDA size screen will just magically disappear leaving a gap between laptop and phone.
If I want to do something that requires a bigger screen (like watch a movie and actually enjoy it), I use a 15" laptop. I'm sure there's room for devices inbetween - bag-size rather than pocket-size, but a decent resolution display can be very usable even on a pocket-sized device.
Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
Cellphones will become extinct as PDAs with cellphone capabiltiy become common!
Introducing the new Occam Fusion! Now with sqrt(-1) fewer blades!
I used to feel the same way, until I found a Sony Clie for $10 after a rebate. That was too good of a deal to pass up. Now I can carry my address book, datebook, notepad, to do list, calculator and much much more in one small device.
more stuff:
dictionary
a whole lot of games
conversion calculators
office applications (word processor, spreadsheet, email. i have to admit, i rarely used these as they are very impractical without a keyboard and mouse)
maps
Vindigo.com (food and entertainment guide and door to door directions)
Avantgo.com (news reader)
image viewer
alarm clock
world clock
stopwatch
graphic, scientific and financial calculator
web browser and email when connected to my cell phone
There are a few more things that I can't think of off the top of my head, but I have all those things with me pretty much where ever I go.
All the data is also backed up on my computer every time I sync which is a great benefit even though its probably used more for recovering from crashes than from losing your PDA, but its there in case you ever do lose it.
~Tommy Boomfiger http://www.gotapex.com/forums
You miss the point of smartphones. It's not that they are gonna replace the paper and pencil or the PS2 or digital cameras. It's that it gives you basic functionality in those areas, all in one device, which you can have with you all the time.
If I'm out one night with friends and we're walking around the city looking for something to do, it's easy enough to go online on a phone and find local spots and even reviews. Or during the train ride, I can take care of replying to emails for work, while listening to streaming Internet radio. I can access my corporate phone and email directories.
So no, I'm not using my phone for decoding DNA sequences but smartphones do alot to untether you.
Yes, it may become trendy for some to take pictures with their cellphones and then email (or MMS) the pictures to their friends and families.
That's a camera phone, not a smartphone. Not comparable to PDAs.
If I need to take pictures, I can use my digital cameras. If I need to do serious computing stuffs (not only number crunching) I can use my laptop. If I need to jot down something, there're pens and paper. If I need to play games, I have PS/2 / X BOX game systems.
Let's see you fit all that in your pocket :-)
Seriously, the whole point of a smartphone is not that it matches the capabilities of any one of those items, but that it provides the basic capabilities of all of them, in one convenient device that is always with you. And they're integrated, which makes for some interesting new capabilities.
I have a digital camera, a laptop, pen and paper and even an XBox, and I use them all, on occasions. I also have a smartphone, and I use it more than any one of those devices, mostly because it's right there in my pocket, not back at home.
Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
PDA choice nowadays is a religion, just like OSs. Even with the same PDA OS you have your die-hard Sony, Palm or (much less so nowadays) Handspring devotees, attached to various features of the devices offered by a particular vendor. Once you integrate the phone and PDA your choices dwindle, at least for the forseable future. Especially in the fragmented US market I see a truly generic PDA phone less likely, because the vendor would have to create versions for at least GSM and CDMA, and for the latter several versions for various carriers (Sprint, Verizon).
Despite what Qualcomm (creators of CDMA) would like you to think, Sprint PCS Vision is not a 3G system. PCS Vision and Verizon Wireless both use a cdma2000 1x network (per this site), but cdma2000 1x is really a 2.5G technology, despite what Qualcomm would like you to think.
GPRS, the technology used by AT&T and T-Mobile, is also 2.5G.
T-Mobile also offers a PC Card that allows a laptop or PDA with a PC Card slot to connect via GPRS.
End of Line.
I think convergence will eventually happen, but I wish it would look somewhat different and take advantage of some useful technologies. You still want a large screen to view lots of info, so convergence towards phone-size displays is bad. You also want a SEPARATE handset so you can read the screen and talk at the same time. How about moving the communications guts of the phone into the PDA and connecting a separate handset to it via Bluetooth? Perhaps make an oversized pen than also doubles as a handet. That would still make taking notes during a call pretty difficult, so maybe just use a regular old Bluetooth headset instead.
LOL. Is this like Bill Gates declaring Linux dead? Actually no, it's the opposite since smartphone is the underdog. This is more like Linus Torvalds or Steve Jobs declaring Microsoft dead. Why is this newsworthy?
my karma will be here long after I'm gone
"The PDA is dead," says David Levin, the boss of Symbian, the leading maker of smartphone software.
In other news, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer came out and announced that Linux is dead.
Call me old-fashioned, but if everything (calendar, contacts, phone-numbers, etc.) is stored on one single device, loosing that device while on the road is disastrous.
I was actually thinking of replacing my Palm with my new cellphone, but said cellphone died on me while on the road (NEVER trust the standby times in the glossy papers!). Actually it's not a problem to find a phone booth, but it's 'Game Over' if you don't know the number you'll intend to call by heart, don't you think??
Checking the 'iSynced' Palm saved me that day.
Just something to think about.
However a PDA doesn't usually have much stamina. It last three days or so with light use, and like the phone - it is usually running in a standby mode rather than being comeletely off. If you start to make much use of the PDA, the power consumption needed can drain the battery within a day (especially if its a Microsoft operating system). End result of combining the two is something that doesn't want to go to far from a charger.
See my journal, I write things there
Whenever I'm travelling, I always have important phone numbers and meetings on both phone and PDA.
And as far as convergence goes, I'd say it's not likely. I don't use my organiser too often, but I *never* use the oganiser on the phone.
I'd be more interested in an article that examined how many people use the organiser-like functions on their mobiles. I only got mine for the camera.
Warning: May contain nuts
"Everybody is forgetting the main cost... AIRTIME!"
:) I have a cell phone I use as a PDA and I pay $7 a month for the internet service (which can be funneled down to my PDA or laptop via bluetooth) but I don't pay actual air time.
Though your statement isn't wrong, it is a little misleading. Today the primary purpose of a PDA is for scheduling appointments and keeping contacts. Though the popularity of using a PDA for web browsing is on the rise, it's really not at a saturation point yet. Worse, the point of using your cell phone to get on the net is that 802.11 coverage isn't exactly ideal. So you get airtime charges (or just not use the net at all) when you're nowhere near an 802.11 hotspot. On top of that, the PDA phone I played with (I think it's made by Siemens or something like that) had an SD slot. There is a company who built an 802.11 card for that slot. If PDAs and cell phones merge more intimately, you can bet that 802.11 will be a serious consideration.
I think your other points (screen size, RAM, etc) are quite valid. I agrued in an earlier post in this thread that PDAs won't die because their slightly larger size affords them capabilities that a cell phone/PDA cannot accomdate. In other words, I agree with you. Just wanted to nitpick your airtime comment.
"Derp de derp."
I think the whole PDA vs. phone argument is missing the point. Just like there was the old 'battle for the desktop', there will now be a new 'battle for the pocket' or purse or whatever. The point is that the human-wearable technologies are converging to a new standard configuration. This includes telephony, traditional PDA functions (calendar, task lists, address books, etc.), music and gaming in a portable, wearable, wireless package.
you do realise that customer lock in freebie phones have nothing to do with the _real_ price of the phone? the freebie aspect was/is there to get the customer in and then leech him on the plan. the phone is not FREE, you pay for it dearly(but not up front).
gprs phones start from somewhere under 200$ new, average nokia costs 200$-300$ i guess(ngage being cheapest that runs symbian apps that are for series60, 3650 is around 350$ or so.). locked phones are illegal here so instead of luring the customers in with "free" phones the operators have to do things like build a decent coverage network and have cheap calls to get the customers(the result? everyone has a cell phone.).
and the trend has been that people ARE willing to pay 300$+ for a new phone.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
Having friends who have these sort of devices and also seeing the Handspring Treo, I feel that they are usually too big as a phone or too small as a PDA. I don't doubt that one day a PDA-Phone will come out at the manages to solve the size issue correctly, but I am yet to see something that does.
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
the product isn't going to -die-. this is how convergence devices are -born-.
PDA market growth is just going to come in the form of convergence devices more and more. some consumers will see it as new phone tech on their next PDA, most will see it as new PDA tech on their next phone. but neither product will 'die'. dedicated PDAs will simply be relegated to markets where having phone capability isn't worth the cost.
in the same reactionary vein one could argue that mp3 players are going to 'die' because of the proliferation of that core functionality showing up in PDAs and cellphones. (without near killer-app sized storage though).
i think the obvious explanation is consumers are demanding a single 'thing' that is their interface to mobile digital information. be it 3G phone, PIM, mp3, email, or mobile data storage. then there's society: having a cellphone is not 'geeky', nor is having a cellphone with PIM functionality.
but having a cellphone + mp3 player + PDA certainly still is.
and practicality: having to manage the batteries on 3+ digital devices is a headache. particularly when you are generally using only one or the other.
my ideal convergence device:
embedded Linux-based OS (for custom programming)
full bandwidth 3G phone (w/ 1m CCD, 24fps video capability)
CF type2 slot
built-in WiFi (802.11b is fine)
short range FM transmitter (for car usage without a dongle)
built in HD ~6gB (preferrably magneto-SRAM)
usb2.0/firewire
OSS PIM
mp3 audio software
mp4/divx video software
tabletPC-style graffiti interface, with automatic translation for text-boxes would be good too.
no more hunt and stab with the stylus for url input.
no SD, no MemoryStick -- no DRM at all thank-you-very-much.
battery: li-ion, rechargable via usb/firewire/dc adapter. ~10 hrs running time.
size: about 4"x2.5".
attachable secondary battery, camelback style, for long trips/flights would be great too.
right now one pays:
~$275 for the mp3 player and storage
~$150 for basic PDA
~$175 for a capable 3G phone
would i pay $600 for all of this rolled into one? most certainly. hell i already spent $200 on the pda and $140 on a nex2e and 512mb CF card. if i get a decent cameraphone i'm out another $150 at least. then there was another $50 for the wifi adapter for the pda.
to be able to have all that functionality in one widget is worth at least $150 by itself. particularly if it has respectable battery life.
// "Can't clowns and pirates just -try- to get along?"
Don't you mean that this is the death of the cell phone?
The functionality of a cell phone is so small compared with todays mobile computer devices.
The simple cellphone capability is being absorbed into SmartPhones, Palms, and PocketPCs.
Cell Phones are dying, not PDAs. Duh!