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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.
This doesn't surprise me. I am selling my T3 Tungsten Palm right now, and it's because I just don't use it. I mean, I *want* to use it, or, more accurately, I want to *need* to use it, but it's just not something I keep with me constantly.
I am torn between being geeky and liking tons of devices, but also moving toward simplification as a central theme in my life. Simplication, in the world of gadgets, unfortunately means using a single, do-it-all device. That for me equates to my Blackberry, which I am now syncing with my OS X machine (I refuse to be a M** person).
Anyway, that's the trend I think -- single devices doing everything. Few people want to lug around multiple contraptions.
dmiessler.com -- grep understanding knowledge
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
Another thought is that modern mobile phones have more akin with PDAs (albiet in a different format package) than they do with older generation phones and that the 'phone' feature was the killer applications.
that are replacing pda functionality. Hell, even the iPod has most of the functions of a basic pda sans an input method. I use it as my pda because my phone sucks, I just plug it into the cradle at night and it charges, updates my calendar, to do list, contacts etc.
Might not be good for people who constantly have to write stuff down, but for me it does what I need to do, oh yeah and plays music.
Monstar L
I took mine back when I found out that you could not point them at a settlement and see on the readout how many humanoid life forms there were in it, and that they were not capable of detecting nearby warp drive fields.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
I am currently workign on a project where PDAs would be used in the industry. I helped a student with a thesis and attached project a year ago and I've had a HP Jornada 620 since 2000.
For every generation of the PDA the operating systems have gotten much slower, bloated, hiding necessary functions, doing the usual MS oversimplification of the interface (hiding file extensions, not actually closing the apps etc).
Add more crashes, data loss and an abysmal battery duration and I'd say it's no wonder why the PDA sales drop, especially with phones getting more and more PDA functionality.
PDAs never got their killer application, which could have been a few of: phone capability, superior data input method compared to phones, instant messaging, mail, cheaper packet based data transfer or porn.
I can only see one way PDAs can go, and that is to be smaller, have a longer battery duration and have phone and instant messaging support and by that definitely Edge/GPRS/UMTS or other 3G telephony and data transfer capability, in effect becoming a lot of things at once.
The only way this can be achieved is with a total rewrite or replacement of PocketPC/WindowsCE
When the PalmPilot came out I found that it could do 90% of what I could do on my Newton in a smaller package. I was using Grafiti on my Newton anyway, so it didn't make sense to keep using it.
Then I stopped taking notes on the Palm and just used it for calendar and contacts. One more thing to remember to take with me.
Now I can sync my (iCal) calendars and my address book to my iPod. I take that little white gem with me pretty much everywhere anyway, and it's doing 80-90% of what my PalmPilot did. And it "just works" on my Mac OS X box.
So it isn't a surprise that this is happening: few people really need to read and write email on the Blackberry. Can you not be disconnected for a few minutes a day?
" I've been thinking about getting one and syching it with OS X. How well have you been finding it works?"
Yes, it seems to be working quite nicely. Alarmed events from iCal don't come over with alarms in the device (unless I'm missing something), but other than that it seems pretty decent.
dmiessler.com -- grep understanding knowledge
I just got a new PDA actually - a Tungsten E. I don't really need all the "bells and whistles" of some of the multi-media PDA's and converged cell-phone/PDA's out there right now. What I needed was new calculator. For a bit more than what a good calculator cost, the Tungsten E also provides the following:
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A way for me to keep a material/hardware reference commonly used in my industry right on hand via SD card (FAA document MMPDS-01 in case your wondering).
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A "lightweight" Octave (LyME) for more complex calculations (I use NeoCal otherwise).
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An organizer that's independant of my office scheduler so I can integrate my personal and work schedules without storing personal information on my office computer.
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A means to check my home e-mail without storing personal data on my work machine. (although I could use the web).
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A way to securely store my ever increasing number of passwords, pin #'s, etc. (yes, my handheld is password protected).
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So, for me, it works out. I thought about getting a converged phone/PDA, but I take my phone places I'd never take my PDA. A phone can be replaced, the data I have stored on my PDA would be a much more severe loss.
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Anyway, my 2 cents.
A goal is a dream with a deadline
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.
Interestingly enough, this is how Opera makes most of it's money. While their PC browser is excellent, (IMHO), it's the ability to render sites on small screen's that's making the company money.
I bought my Tungsten | E less than a year ago (April 2004). After less than three months, the chrome had completely chipped off the "down" button, last week its stereo jack stopped working, and the battery is on its way to dying.
I went to the Palm website to see about at least getting my TE's stereo jack fixed. Turns out the warranty only spans 90 days(!), after which repairs cost a $125 flat-fee(!!). Coincidence that this is almost as much as some new Palm handhelds? The support section of their website offers the following "advice:" Huh? Why would I spend $499 on a "new one" when I can easily obtain spare parts from a third party?. I smell the work of a MBA.
(I ended up opening up the Tungsten myself and soldering the headphone jack connections back into place. There was barely any solder on them to begin with. Hmmmmm....)
Now don't get me wrong, I like my TE and I use it a lot. It's just too bad that Palm designed a device that isn't meant to be used that much!
For $200 + shipping, you'd think they could give me something a little more sturdy.
But where is the innovation? I want a few-gigas-hardrive (those I hear from toshiba might do the trick...), a nice-to-have-640x480-screen, decent battery, GSM/GPRS or UMTS, and even an integrated projector to do some presentations... I want a real personal assistant that makes me use it, or I will (again) leave my PDA at home and just bring along my cellular.
It seems the PDAs that come out simply don't have anything really new, besides an extra Mhz from a new Intel processor.
So how is it surprising that sales have dropped now that 99% of those people have their PDAs?
Shoot Pixels, Not People!