Pen-Based PDA Market on Death Bed

An anonymous reader writes "The traditional pen-based PDA market is destined to evaporate within the next four years, according to HP, and it will be focusing its handheld efforts on converged smart phone devices, such as its latest BlackBerry rivals unveiled this week -- the iPAQ rw6800 and the iPAQ hw6900." From the article: "This won't come as a surprise to many, as HP hasn't given its traditional pen-based product line a refresh since the launch of the iPAQ hx4700 towards the middle of 2004. It released the iPAQ rx1950 in September of last year, but this was very much an entry-level product and made few waves among the high-end, tech-savvy consumers that dominate the PDA segment."

Comments

Tablet PCs

[PlayCleverFully]

Pen Based PDA's will be replaced by better tablet pcs.

I am not sure why they have not caught on a lot more, they offer tons on functionality, and decent uptimes.

Take handwritten notes and have them stored in digital format stored immediately?

Why not?

Re:Tablet PCs

[hcdejong]

I'll believe it when I see a Tablet PC
- small enough to stick in a pants pocket
- that doesn't need charging every 4 hours

Re:Tablet PCs

[badasscat]

Pen Based PDA's will be replaced by better tablet pcs.

I am not sure why they have not caught on a lot more,

Because people don't want them. In fact, the same dynamic is at work in replacing the pen-based PDA with keyboard-based models. You may not understand it (hey, even unpopular ideas have at least a few fans), but I think the market has proven time and time again that people want keyboard-based input.

Those who argue in favor of pen-based input always talk about how "intuitive" it is, but I think that's a misnomer. Is it more intuitive to jot something down that even you yourself can barely read and that is poorly recognized by the PC than it is to simply type something that everybody can understand? Is it any faster? (The answer to that is clearly no; you can test that yourself.)

Pen-based PDA's are on the way out and so are tablet PC's, except for those certain market segments (medical professionals, construction, etc.) that can benefit from them. But they are not suitable as general purpose machines; not as suitable as PC's with keyboards, anyway.

Re:Tablet PCs

[lawpoop]

The Nokia 770 fits your first criteria. However the battery life is only 3 hours.

I've seen it at CompUSA, and it is very sleek! It is horizontally oriented and sits comfortably into my hand.

The only problem is that it lacks apps. I think partly because it was designed as a web browsing device, and partly because Nokia thought it would fail, there were no apps built for it. However, since it runs the somewhat open-source Maemo platform, there is a lot of opportunity for community development.

Just as long as not everyone believes them....

[Daniel_Staal]

Fine, get out of the market. Just please, someone stay in. I'd be lost without my PDA, and I don't want a 'smartphone'. I want something I can reference while holding the phone...

Re:Just as long as not everyone believes them....

[digitalgiblet]

I agree, but evidently NON-geeks seem to be adopting the bluetooth "clothespins". I stopped for gas this morning (in a suburb of Atlanta) and of the 5 or 6 people getting gas I was the ONLY one NOT wearing one (and I'm pretty sure I was the biggest geek onhand). The funniest part is that people who wear them DON'T take them off. They were all walking around inside the building getting coffe, etc. while wearing their large, obtrusive ear-pieces. Only Lt. Uhura had a more obtrusive ear-piece!

I've long held the opinion that if you gave one of these things to one of the homeless guys who stand on the street and talk to unseen people, they would cease to look crazy, but rather "productive". Go figure.

In other news...

[Rydia]

Harley-Davidson has a release fortelling the impending doom of automobiles in favor of motorcycles.

You know...

[mangus_angus]

not all of us WANT all in one devices. I like my phone, MP3 player, and PDA being separate devices. If one breaks I'm not screwed three times over.

I hope not

[hcdejong]

I love my Palm with satnav software. For me, this is the best compromise yet for satnav: it's linked to my address book, easily updated with new maps/POI etc, and usable everywhere. Much better than traditional in-car satnav. Running this on a phone would suck, too, thanks to the tiny screen of a phone.

Depends on how you look at what constitutes a PDA

[Gunfighter]

The one class of PDAs I know to be on the rise is... analog!

I just splurged and dropped ~$20 on a new PDA. This PDA I purchased is great! The batteries never run out, it is almost totally immune to shock from being dropped, I can transfer data easily between home and office, and the format is universal so I never have to worry about incompatibilities, and it is so fast and easy to use that even my parents can understand it. I went ahead and purchased an add-on module for it so I could have the advanced calendaring to track my gigs and rehearsals. Luckily, I already had a docking station for it with extra storage capacity as well as a variety of other add-ons, so it fit right into my daily routine.

I consider it one of the best investments I've made in years. Spending $20 to successfully replace a $300 device may not sound realistic, but I've never been more organized than I am now. All I had to do that I got rid of my old PDA systems (Palm OS based devices) and find something that fit better with my new filing system.