At 0:02 -0400 6/24/04, Charles Martin wrote:-- I'm awfully glad they ignored advice from "armchair quarterbacks" in the Mac community to make a low-cost "starter" Mac, produce an Apple-branded PDA (oh dear, THAT would have been a bad idea wouldn't it?!), etc.
Actually, no it isn't. With PalmSource and PalmOne dropping Mac compatibility in Palm OS 6, soon there will not be any PDAs that can be used with Macs.
No, this is absolutely not true. In addition to Mark/Space, who have already announced that their "Missing Sync" software will support Cobalt and Macs, PalmOne (which is a separate company from PalmSource) have reiterated that they WILL be continuing to support Macs. On top of all that, Apple can easily add that functionality to iSync if they are so inclined. And of course older models will continue to work as they have done.
<http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/2004/04/27/palmone/index.php? redirect=1088084274000>
Furthermore, the handheld PDA market (the market Apple was urged to enter) is now practically dead, having been co-opted by the cell phone business. Handheld PDAs anticipate only single-digit growth this year, and all four major makers acknowledge that the handheld PDA market has peaked. Had Apple entered the PDA market when the pressure to do was highest (ie a year or two ago, just before the cell-phone market co-opted them), it would have been a huge financial disaster for the company.
The bright spot is that the latest iPod software apparently has "hooks" built into to allow it to become a PDA when Apple writes the software.
Not really. The iPod already has PLENTY of PDA functions in it (and has done for quite some time now), but since it lacks an input device (and no such thing is planned TtBoMK), it will never be a true PDA. Still, it does most of the type of PDA functions *I* need (storing contacts, reminders, addresses, notes, RSS reader and many other forms of info, and with add-ons can be a voice recorder and digital-camera card reader) right out of the box, today. I just can't add anything to it until I sync it to my computer. Do a search at versiontracker.com or macupdate.com for "iPod" and see just how many cool things you can do with an iPod beyond music and FW hard drive storage.
I think Apple's game plan (and I want to acknowledge that I am just WAGging here) is to keep the iPod as the only OTHER device one needs to wear (the first one being the cell phone). I could see them developing direct Bluetooth sync between iPod and phone (they already have that in conjunction with iSync, btw), bypassing the computer at some point, but it seems clear that Apple doesn't see the point of the iPod duplicating too many of the functions of a modern phone. iPod on one side, PDA phone on the other -- it's a nice symmetry. :)
_Chas_
FL-MUG: central Florida's Macintosh User Group. Meetings: second Thursday of the month, 6-9pm, at the Orlando Science Center. http://www.flmug.org
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