On Fri, May 12, 2000 at 02:16:35PM -0400, Chris Faherty wrote:
> On 12-May-2000 Mike Davis wrote:
>
> > Users want this and users will get this. Anyone who thinks the world
> > will stay with a small b/w unit, when they can get the same
> > footprint, with color, larger screen and sound, is burying thier head
> > in the sand.
The problem is they can't get the same footprint with color, larger
screen and sound. They can only get Windows crammed into that
platform.
> In my opinion, people don't care about those details. They want these
> gadgets to live up to the promises of making their lives better. You can add
> fancy hardware features all you want but if the device makes you; stare at an
> hourglass, swap batteries or charge everyday, hold it up to a window to get
> reception, or is so bulky that it breaks instead of bouncing then that is the
> problem.
Palm docks at the desktop like a ship in port, it works with lots of
platforms as well as stand-alone (the desktop merely acting as a
backup and install device).
The point of any Microsoft product is to force you to use more
Microsoft products, so can you sync your CE device to your mail
program if you don't have one subsceptible to the recent viruses?
Will it exchange info with Notepad or Write? Will it work at all on a
Mac or Linux or BeOS system?
Does Pocket XYZ open and edit any of the desktop XYZ documents
properly and fully? Can I print using IR to a HP printer directly?
Battery life is not an issue in a device where a design goal is to
lock you to your Microsoft Office desktop.
It looks as though PalmOS might be able to be ported to such a
platform soon. Will it? If so, it might outsell the IIIc.
Great hardware can't make up for bad software. And Microsoft will
never let the CE platform (whatever it is called this year) work well
enough for anyone not to need Windows, IE, Outlook, and Office.
It is not that they don't get it or won't "fix" their apps - it is
that fixing them creates a middleware threat to their monopoly.
> > Right now the Pocket PC is about the same size as a palm (slightly
> > larger). It is a competitor to the Palm IIIc which costs about the same.
> > Eventually, all b/w devices will go away. How many laptops do you see in
> > b/w now? NONE! Because users will demand color. I doubt that the
> > PocketPC will ever have a b/w unit.
If I am paying $1500 for one of these, it had better have color. But
you have things backwards. If you want to run Windows, you need a
color laptop. That is the cause of the demand for color. There is a
new email-only device out (about $129 at compusa - I forget the name).
It is in black and white. So are all the other PDA/PIMs.
If this was correct, people would also demand color laser printers and
copiers, and B&W outnumber color document printers by a wide margin.
> I've been bitching about laptops for years. I can't think of a less useful
> device that I own. It was always a great source of stress while travelling
> and I've found the things to be extremely unreliable. The one exception was
> an IBM Thinkpad 350 which I found had a good mixture of features; clear B/W
Since I got my palm, I don't use my laptop. With internet
connectivity, I can access bigger things remotely, but the truly
portable things are now on the palm.
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