Tom Zerucha wrote:
> The problem is that a Palm device is like a Bic or Cricket lighter, or
> even one of those lighter/torches. They ignite things or maybe can
> heat something but they have a narrow function that they do extremely
> well.
>
> If you can imagine a pocket furnace, flame thrower, and toaster that
> can be used for lighting cigarettes, that is sort of where Microsoft
> is trying to get you to go.
I've heard of cars as an analogy but this is a new one. I like it!
> Though in one sense Palm is getting it going in the other direction -
> they have lots of developers and lots of small but interesting apps.
> The PocketPC (or whatever they are calling it now) runs windows.
The fact that it runs windows on a handheld has yet to be shown as profitable venture.
Slapping a Windows logo on something does
not turn it into gold are Microsoft is learning.
> You aren't going to enter Word documents with formatting, tables,
> etc. on such a tiny screen. Ditto for Excel spreadsheets (Dump the
> excess and you get what any of the well done Palm spreadsheets do).
I'd like to see what someone from TinySheet or QuickSheet would have to say about this.
>
> And I've noted Palm plays more like an embedded environment for
> development. VC++ doesn't and wouldn't work well. On any small
> platform. You can get away with C++ in embedded if you are very
> careful, otherwise it bloats too much.
Right on!!! I'm finally gald someone else is mentioning this! That is what a lot of
these developers just don't get when they code
for the Palm.
>
> And you can run internet explorer so you can get all those 100K pages
> over your CPDP modem. If you wait long enough. Palm has web
> clipping
It loads text fine! How about a pocket Lynx browser?
> The problem with Windows CE is that it is still Windows. And I don't
> think Microsoft will "get it" because their entire idea is "Windows in
> the pocket".
Kinda reminds me of the old IBM TopView chant of "A mainframe on your desk." No this
is not a joke but what they were trying to do
in the late 70's.
>
>
> OTOH, Linux embeds well, so it will be interesting to see how many
> iPaqs end up running Linux and what apps are developed.
So anyone up for buying just the iPaq hardware from Compaq and selling Linux on it out
of the box as a VAR?
Steve
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