ya know, i've been reading over a lot of these posts and very few people here seem to have ever used both sides... I sell the things (palm and pocketpc devices, blackberrys etc.) and have plenty of experience with all of them. And to tell you the truth, PocketPC does blow Palm out of the water. Now before all of you palm diehards flip out and get huffy, let me explain!
Firstly, learning curve for new users is WAY lower on a pocketPC. Why? because its SO much like their windows desktop (yes yes yes, i know not everyone uses windows, but come on folks, MOST people use it, and the people who are BUYING the things are MOSTLY NEW users...so the fact holds). I consider myself a good honest (non commision based) salesman/tech nerd, and I usually take the time to talk to my customers and walk them through features and such and let THEM drive the thing and see which THEY like better. By far, ALL new users I talk to prefer the Ipaqs, and most people who had previous handhelds (palm based) usually switch over, and DIE HARDS are about 50/50 change over. I personally have had palms since way back in the day, and I have switched over to ipaqs. I just bought a rx3115 and am about to upgrade to the 3715 (cheap too, perks of selling em...) But the point is, its FAMILIAR, and people don't like to learn a lot.
Secondly, its NOT slow, whoever keeps touting the "low speed" of pocketpc devices is obviously using one of the "value" brands. I don't have hardly any wait times, I barely notice any slow downs, and when i DO, i just stop other programs in the background.
Third, BUILT IN hand writing recognition. OMG palm can not touch the ease of use of a properly "trained" transcriber. "but my graffiti is soooo fast now" yeh and you had to LEARN how to write all over again just to use it. Why do that when you can write just as fast and in full words/sentences like paper which ALL people are used to? again, low/no learning curve.
4th, BETTER program organization. I am sick of hearing palm die-hards tout the "easy" icon menu in palm. ok so it has sets of icon? wooohoo. how annoying is it to have to open a program and scroll or click around to find out what you have scheduled for that day? PPC devices show you on the "today" screen anything you wanna know. WITHOUT a plugin! again, easy and quick. Then the stuff you want to run is right on your start menu, JUST like your home computer. Again, just what you are used to. the parent to this said:
"When I'm looking up an address or want to enter a quick note then I don't want to have to navigate through a menu system to get there first and wait while everything happens."
what handheld were YOU using? on mine i just have to CUT IT ON, and hey whaddaya know right on the main screen are my appointments for the day, ONE click and im looking at my calender. wanna look up a person? press the contact list button, DONE, theres the list and a MUCH more organized screen with quick access letters across the top. (also, no group limit, so i can organize and label to my hearts content...unlike palm) The fact of the matter is, to do ANYTHING on a palm actually requires more user effort than on a PPC (assuimg you dont just keep your icon list on "all" all the time. and even then ya gotta scroll through a list of crap to find what ya want.)
5th, memory and price. Ok i KNOW i'm starting a war with this comment, but you GET more space for your buck with a ppc. ok now here comes the folks saying BUT PPC programs are BIGGER so it doesn't even out. I KNOW THIS, but honestly the palm programs are catching up fast and nearly the same average size now. Not to mention that the way the PPC deals with expansion cards is more direct and faster than with palm.
6th CONTROL! how annoying is it to want to put a certain file from your computer into the file system on your palm and YOU CAN'T without going through quite a lot of anoyance. With PPC you have FULL file folder control and can stick anything anywhere. Just a moment ago I transfered some mp3s (don't tel
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ya know, i've been reading over a lot of these posts and very few people here seem to have ever used both sides... I sell the things (palm and pocketpc devices, blackberrys etc.) and have plenty of experience with all of them. And to tell you the truth, PocketPC does blow Palm out of the water. Now before all of you palm diehards flip out and get huffy, let me explain!
Firstly, learning curve for new users is WAY lower on a pocketPC. Why? because its SO much like their windows desktop (yes yes yes, i know not everyone uses windows, but come on folks, MOST people use it, and the people who are BUYING the things are MOSTLY NEW users...so the fact holds). I consider myself a good honest (non commision based) salesman/tech nerd, and I usually take the time to talk to my customers and walk them through features and such and let THEM drive the thing and see which THEY like better. By far, ALL new users I talk to prefer the Ipaqs, and most people who had previous handhelds (palm based) usually switch over, and DIE HARDS are about 50/50 change over. I personally have had palms since way back in the day, and I have switched over to ipaqs. I just bought a rx3115 and am about to upgrade to the 3715 (cheap too, perks of selling em...) But the point is, its FAMILIAR, and people don't like to learn a lot.
Secondly, its NOT slow, whoever keeps touting the "low speed" of pocketpc devices is obviously using one of the "value" brands. I don't have hardly any wait times, I barely notice any slow downs, and when i DO, i just stop other programs in the background.
Third, BUILT IN hand writing recognition. OMG palm can not touch the ease of use of a properly "trained" transcriber. "but my graffiti is soooo fast now" yeh and you had to LEARN how to write all over again just to use it. Why do that when you can write just as fast and in full words/sentences like paper which ALL people are used to? again, low/no learning curve.
4th, BETTER program organization. I am sick of hearing palm die-hards tout the "easy" icon menu in palm. ok so it has sets of icon? wooohoo. how annoying is it to have to open a program and scroll or click around to find out what you have scheduled for that day? PPC devices show you on the "today" screen anything you wanna know. WITHOUT a plugin! again, easy and quick. Then the stuff you want to run is right on your start menu, JUST like your home computer. Again, just what you are used to. the parent to this said:
"When I'm looking up an address or want to enter a quick note then I don't want to have to navigate through a menu system to get there first and wait while everything happens."
what handheld were YOU using? on mine i just have to CUT IT ON, and hey whaddaya know right on the main screen are my appointments for the day, ONE click and im looking at my calender. wanna look up a person? press the contact list button, DONE, theres the list and a MUCH more organized screen with quick access letters across the top. (also, no group limit, so i can organize and label to my hearts content...unlike palm) The fact of the matter is, to do ANYTHING on a palm actually requires more user effort than on a PPC (assuimg you dont just keep your icon list on "all" all the time. and even then ya gotta scroll through a list of crap to find what ya want.)
5th, memory and price. Ok i KNOW i'm starting a war with this comment, but you GET more space for your buck with a ppc. ok now here comes the folks saying BUT PPC programs are BIGGER so it doesn't even out. I KNOW THIS, but honestly the palm programs are catching up fast and nearly the same average size now. Not to mention that the way the PPC deals with expansion cards is more direct and faster than with palm.
6th CONTROL! how annoying is it to want to put a certain file from your computer into the file system on your palm and YOU CAN'T without going through quite a lot of anoyance. With PPC you have FULL file folder control and can stick anything anywhere. Just a moment ago I transfered some mp3s (don't tel