I have to disagree with you Ed. Although you and the handful
or so of technically aware users might prefer to trade battery
life and cost for color, the bigger market apparently does not.
This is why Palm is rapidly losing handheld market share.
The point about the internet phones is that what the market
wants, and therefore what the market will buy, are all in one
information appliances. The personal computer is, for better
or worse, bound to the internet. The same is also true for
the handheld, whcih is really just an extension of it's bigger
brother on the desktop.
All desktop computer users are familiar with the "file" paradigm.
Where Pocket PC is killing Palm is in that it feels familiar and
comfortable to users. As ridiculous as it sounds to us, non-technical
end users would feel most comfortable running their bloated desktop
applications on their handhelds instead of having to learn think about
their handheld data and software differently than the way they think
about their desktop data and software.
Look, these devices are used by people to extend the functionality
of their brain. The easier it is to integrate the device into their
current thought models, the more desirable the devices will be.
On this forum, we think of these devices differently. For us they are
tools and toys into which extend for us, a way of thinking about data
and apps that is vastly different from those of the mass market. We are
NOT the market. We like the elegance of our cute little bundled apps
and data, and that tight binding works well for consumers using the
appliance model, where the device is an appliance designed to fulfill
a specific need. However the market perception of what these things
are is changing. They are no longer just electronic organizers. They
are now becoming thought of as Hand Held Personal Computers.
But it goes further than that. With onboard intelligence finding it's
way into communications devices, and the widespread use of e-mail and
internet services. the boundaries between phones, handhelds, laptops,
and desktop PC is blurring. The point that Michael is making is that
if Palm wants to continue to be a force in the handheld market it must
provide what the market wants. Palm is relying, in large part on US,
the developers, to provide what the market wants. They are also relying
on us to tell them what we need, in terms of the OS, in order to deliver
what the market wants.
We, as developers, have alot invested in OS stability. We will tend to
resist the changes that the market demands. We must get OUR heads out
of the sand and talk to more users. Lots of them are willing to trade
cost and battery life for color, and they won't be content with running
black & white apps on those color devices. Color is a powerful tool
for extending the capability of software to represent information. We
need to use it, and use it effectively.
And the low end market, which is spoken of so fondly, is also a low
profit margin market, which in our rapidly changing world tends to
quickly become an obsolete market.
Ok. Enough pontificating. I've got to do some debugging now.
Scott Herman
Yale New Haven Hospital
Department of Lab Medicine
20 York Street
New Haven, Ct. 06504
(203) 688-2449
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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