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Why Have PDAs Failed In The iPod Era?
mikejz84 writes "As the owner of a PocketPC PDA I am a very happy camper, with wifi internet access, Skype Voip, video playback, and of course the ubiquitous mp3 playback. In an era were everyone seems to talk about the Video iPod, and the next generation of mobile devices, it leaves me wondering - I already have all those abilities in a PDA that costs about as much as an iPod. My question for Slashdot: Given that modern PDAs have almost all the functionality of these separate devices, how has Palm and Microsoft/PocketPC developers failed in making PDAs a force in this new era of portable media devices? It is the poor marketing, bad media apps, public perception, or do people simply not want an all-in-one for mobile media?"
Add to this that they're pretty much universally ugly (note that the iPod sells millions while Rios rot on the shelves), and that I have yet to see one with decent capacity (outside of carrying around a pocket full of CF cards).
Dell has deals on their Axims that put them down into the same price range as the iPods, and the WIFI and GPS features (on top of intrinsic hackability of the systems themselves) appeal to me greatly. I still don't own one, though, and I have 3 iPods (regular, mini, nano).
Game... blouses.
The last PDA I bought was a Palm T3 to replace my Treo 300 that I was furious at sprint with because the flip top lid thing snapped off after about eight months of use and the prick told me it was misuse. I am 'careful' with my devices and being told I chucked it at a wall in hopes of an upgrade really made my day.
Anyway, a PDA while decent to do lots of stuff, it doesn't do lots of stuff well.
There are things out there to improve the experience, but most of the time they cost money.
A iPod works out of the box, you don't have to jiggle here, tweak there, poke here. That's why the Pocket Windows devices appeal more to geeks but not to the rest of the world. On a lot of things I want them to Just Work (TM) and it seems when there is a device out there that 'does more stuff and costs the same' it doesn't Just Work(TM) you gott a dick with it. I don't get paid to dick with little devices to listen to music or look up my calendar so I'm not gonna waste my time and look for something that just works (TM)
My $0.02
As a rock-in-roll Physicist once said, No matter where you go, there you are.
You're almost there. There're a few other features PDAs have over laptops.
I use a PDA daily. It is vital to my productivity. But I also have an iBook. I don't use my PDA for my addressbook anymore. I look numbers up on my iBook. I don't take notes on my PDA anymore. Anything important goes into my iBook. I could play MP3s on my PDA, but I'd rather use my iPod for that. It's easier to manage and manipulate for music. I can also play music on my iBook while doing other work, something the Zire72 attempts but doesn't always succeed in.
The two things that PDA are indispensable for me are To Do lists and Calendars. Laptops don't beep at me, and boy do I need that beep. My Zire72 has a piercing shrill alarm I can hear all over the house. My iBook not so loud. My PDA turns on instantly. My iBook not so quickly, especially if I have to cold boot it. And since I replaced my PDA's Graffiti2 with the original version, the hand writing recognition is very fast.
However, if my iBook had a PDA screen built into the lid with access to my to do lists and calendar (synced with iCal or Entourage of course) and a loud alarm, it might possibly replace my PDA.
In fact, I think it would replace my PDA.
The Splintered Mind - Overcoming
Actually the Palm like the IPod was a focused product with an elegant interface. It didn't fail as much got killed by WINCE devices.
The Palm was a great little PDA. It replaces your day planner and that was pretty much it. Yea you could play a few games on it but wasn't it's main function.
Then came the WINCE devices. Look it has color neato. You can run Excel on it. You can listen to music.....
The PDA got defocused. Microsoft couldn't make a better Palm so it made PDAs into something different.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
Personally, I can't find much worth doing with a PDA that isn't already done better by something else. They have no "killer ap".
Sure they do. You just might not be the sort of person who would use one.
I've used my PDA for the last four years, every day, for the following things that nothing else could do better:
* Reading the news, for free, while taking the bus.
* Single-entry writing. (That is, I put it in once and don't have to "type it in later.")
* Tracking purchases as I make them, including cash-only transactions.
* Tracking dates, contacts, and anniversaries.
This past summer I upgraded to Palm's top-of-the-line 4 GB drive, and I get to do each of the above plus:
* Watch movies
* Listen to music or podcasts
* Reference material while at work or play.
The PDA is like a Personal Computer that you constantly have with you. It only makes sense in that venue, and in that venue it does its variety of small jobs better than anything else.
....I have found that I'm distracted by a device that does too much, and isn't particularly good at anything that it's supposed to do.....
In so much of life there is specalization. Think of how many kinds of medical practitioners there are, each specializing in a different part of the body. I wouldn't want a general family doctor to do open heart surgery on me, but a good surgeon who does heart surgery only, every day.
It is like that in tecnological devices also. In a phone, I want one that does that really well and not compromise that function with a lot of bells and whistles that waste precious battery life and have nothing to do with calling or receiving just plain phone calls.
If I want to have my entire music library with me and easily select any song, a phone will always be a compromise compared to a specialized, well designed device like an iPod.
If I want to enjoy a movie, I'll go to a movie show or at least watch it in the comfort of my living room on as big a screen as I can afford or fit into the room.
In a digital camera, I want one with enough quality so that I can significantly crop a picture and not have it look fuzzy and pixilated when printed as a 5x7.
Devices that try to be a jack of all trades are a master of none are ultimately a huge waste of money.
All theory is gray
just a minor point, Apple's business model is to make money on the iPod not itunes. They just break even on iTunes. Their gross margin on nano is 50% and ipod is around 40%. Itunes is around 10%.