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PDA Sales Fall for Third Year in Row
A reader writes "Reports ZDNet
on how PDA sales have slipped for a third year in a row now at a five-year low." Anyone have numbers for sales of cell phones? My cell phone has almost every piece of functionality I got from my PDA 3 years ago. Plus a crappy camera. Still no dice roller.
It is a technology trend, noted by a study at UPenn that new technology almost always has a dip after its first big increase. So the jury is still out.
TFA states that no Blackberry or Blackberry-like devices were counted.....Could this have pulled the numbers up?
I think the line between pda/cell phone is starting to blur....Might as well have counted the Blackberry....Hell, you can do most of what you need to on a PDA on a cell phone these days. And they come free/relatively cheap with new service
thewldisntenuff
My MythTV HowTo
I have found this with every variation on organizers, day-planners, scheduling software, etc. They're fun to look at and play with for a few days, and you try to convince yourself this time you'll actually use it.
The reality is, some people (like me) just don't use that kind of organizing tool and it's just a gadget. I know a lot of people who don't/won't use any such critter. I figure except for a small fraction of people, most people simply do not need this kind of thing.
Maybe they've already sold them to everyone who cares.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
It's called "PalmOS". PalmSource has announced a future version will be based on Linux, which is exciting.
Now if someone will just build some compelling hardware... :-)
Wearable devices are a dark horse in all this also, and might make a better base for converged comm/computer functionality (since you can comfortably carry bigger batteries that way).
Galileo: "The Earth revolves around the Sun!"
Score: -1 100% Flamebait
Simplication, in the world of gadgets, unfortunately means using a single, do-it-all device.
That will simplify one's cartage/storage needs - using one device is pretty straightforward, after all - but can very easily complicate other aspects.
I carry a laptop, a PDA (Clie), and a mobile phone. I don't need all of them all the time, so I carry what is necessary. However, if one item goes south I will still have the other two. If the all-in-one device breaks it becomes an all-are-gone. I find this unacceptable - YMMV.
Small all-in-one devices also frequently suffer from substandard input options and user interfaces. A fair compromise might be a PDA/phone device with an optional full-size (e.g. folding) keyboard, but that still leaves the user with the risk of losing all functionality with one mishap.
I want to drag this out as long as possible. Bring me my protractor.
It works surprisingly well -- I get highly-formatted text, including greek and cyrillic characters as needed. I can reproduce complex drawings, including simple gray-scale shading. In shorthand mode, I can capture output in near real time, and in high-quality output mode other students can generally read my notes. Pretty amazing things, these pencils.
I watched a fellow student using both thumbs to frantically poke tic-tac sized buttons on his PDA's integrated keyboard, and offered him a piece of paper and a spare pencil. "No way", he said, "this is a $500 PDA!". Sigh.