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PocketPC shipments slid 46% last quarter | |
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| Time: 07:07 EST/12:07 GMT | News Source: The Register | Posted By: Byron Hinson | ||
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Palm retained its lead in the worldwide PDA arena last quarter as PocketPC's share of the business fell significantly and the market as a whole dipped on the previous quarter. According to market watcher Gartner Dataquest's figures for third-quarter global PDA shipments, the number of machines shipped fell by just under ten per cent, from 2.81 million units in Q2 to 2.54 million. Palm's share of that total dipped to 29.7 per cent - some 745,000 units worldwide - down from 31.7 per cent in Q2. Palm OS licensee Handspring took 14 per cent of the market, a market trend-breaking increase on the 11 per cent it held during the previous quarter. The company then shipped 300,000 units; during Q3 it shipped 352,000 PDAs. | ||
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| #1 By 1169 (62.128.210.235) at 11/5/2001 7:46:39 AM |
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The problem is simple; aiming at the wrong market - measuring the wrong market. Pocket PCs are reat for entrepises and developers, it is a sturdy OS with great network potential, as an 'average' user tool in everyday life (I am ot talking about us, techies and gizmo lovers who go bananas over all this, or Apple Newton fans) it fails badly. I have been the owner of 2 pocket PCs (both HP) and have also tested the devices on my company. 22 users (disparate ages and backgrounds) who never used a PDA were given a Pocket PC for two weeks. and then for two other weeks they were given a visor edge. only one of them decided to stay with the PPC. Everyome felt the visor was smaller, more of an article to have in your bag or coat pocket, it did the job quicky and cleanly, without ,much fuss. They expressed no desire for viewing video or storing photos, they wanted good calendaring and contact management.
I think the drop down menu concept does not work well on PDA. ON a PDA you want to know what you have rigth there, the windows interface makes you feel there is more behind that you know or care to know, it may sound silly, but how the interface feels to the user is paramount!. |
| #2 By 1124 (165.170.128.66) at 11/5/2001 9:11:03 AM |
| You have a point, but I think (also) just like PC sales always drop before MS comes out with a new OS, that is what happened to the Pocket PC sales. My friend wants to buy an Pocket PC but he is waiting for the new (Pocket PC) OS. I am waiting to upgrade my Ipaq. |
| #3 By 116 (129.116.86.41) at 11/5/2001 9:12:35 AM |
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I totally disagree. I think Pocket PC is for everyone. I don't know anyone that would choose a palm over a pocketpc after they see what it can do. MP3/WMA Players are all the rage right now and the Pocket PC excel's at playing those. You can play Flash, and Video's on a Pocket PC. My little brother (14) really wants an iPaq because he can play games on it and because its color. My little sister thinks they are way cool. Everyone was waiting for PPC 2002 thats why you saw a drop in shipments for Pocket PC. I guarantee after this quarter Pocket PC will have a very large surge.
As far as good calendaring and contact management I think the Pocket PC excels at that. It is extremely intuitive to use and very quick to get task accomplished. The original Pocket PC interface (Windows CE 2.0) I think didn't perform too well. But now I think thye have something that works, and works well. |
| #4 By 1169 (62.128.210.235) at 11/5/2001 10:05:00 AM |
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Your point is well taken, but I think that we need to remove the PPC machines from the PDA realm into the (redundancy here) Pocket PC realm. If you want a pc in your pocket, buy a PPC (PocketPC not Power PC), if you want to be able to move your data around (notes, calendar, contacts, some documents to read on the train, etc) then a palm style is for you. I am a business person, I understand the power of the PPC, ye, I have no use for it rigth now for several reasons;
1- It is still bulky and the design is UGLY compared to a palm V or a Visor edge and If I am going to bother buying a nice set of traveling bags, then I should not aspire for lesser in the PDA department. 2- As I said, the drop down concept is not as functional at the screen scale Pocket we are dealing with here. 3- Give me a nice PDA, as thin, small and well designed (aesthetically speaking)as the new Sony Clie or the Visor edge, a front page structure (that is, like palm OS were you see most of your apps at a glance) and I will buy it, but not because it can do video or MP3, that is inconsecuencial when choosing the 'CORRECT' tool to help me with my job, nor is the fact that young kids want to play with it makes it a viable, well designed machinne for the average working person. How long did it take Microsoft to get windows rigth?, there will be at least two or three more incarnations of Pocket PC before it is simple, streamlined and truly a device that can be taking anywhere, then it will kill the others, why?; because it not only does other things extremelly well (video, etc) but it does what the others do better (calendar etc) and rigth now, those features are the least important to microsoft, playing WM files seems to be the priority rigth now. My two cents |
| #5 By 415 (199.8.64.45) at 11/5/2001 10:27:00 AM |
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For the cost, a Pocket PC is a much better buy. The new models have a 200 mhz processor, 64mb RAM, an industry standard expansion system. And, all PocketPC's have software that actually does stuff out of the box.
The reason the Palm is so much smaller is because IT DOESN'T HAVE ANYTHING IN IT! Just look at the specs. 8 megs of RAM, 33 mhz CPU, 1/2 the display size of a PocketPC, come on... So, if your a dumbass who wants to blow $400 on a glorified electronic day planner, get a Palm-based handheld. But, if you want something with some nuts on it, and has really usefull software already on it, get a Pocket PC. |
| #6 By 1845 (207.173.73.201) at 11/5/2001 11:12:00 AM |
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#5 IronClad, you have some rather hot words about a little piece of plastic. (Besides you can get Palms for much less than $400.)
Diabulous, not sure I agree with you. I think PocketPC has a quite respectable calendaring and contact managment. It is also a great platform for general moblie computing. As a programmer and a businessman, I find Compaq's iPaq a great tool for me. I must admit that I don't to much streaming AV on it, I think it's good that I can if I wanted to. My personal opinion is that there isn't much, if anything, that Palm does better than the Pocket PC. |
| #7 By 1169 (62.128.210.235) at 11/5/2001 11:39:28 AM |
| I did not meant to imply that PocketPC have bad calendaring, I was reffering to the fact that in typical Microsoft fashion, it is not the most important thing for the OS. MS tends to give you basic apps for almost anything just to kill the competition, the problem is that heir products are never really good at one thing, while Palm OS has a core function to organize your life via its interface and apps, Pocket PC does not seem to know who is it for or what is it that it is really good at (happens to windows and Windows Movie Maker, earlier incarnations of Media Player and so) |
| #8 By 116 (129.116.86.41) at 11/5/2001 11:52:15 AM |
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I think this is turning into a Palm vs. Pocket PC argument. Personally I like the Pocket PC. Nothing wrong with the palm its a great little machine. I prefer the pocket pc however. If you don't like it then don't bash it.
Palm is good, but in my opinion PocketPC is better. As far as streaming video, yes I actually used it on a trip hooked up on my cell phone. Awesome feature. Does it have business implications? Probably not right now but in the future it very well might. |
| #9 By 135 (208.50.201.48) at 11/5/2001 12:34:12 PM |
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I really don't care. I have an PocketPC and pretty much don't use it. If I had a Palm I would pretty much not use that either.
Instead I carry around a full sized Franklin planner, but only because I could get week at once planning sheets. I have no need for contacts, no need for appointments. I'm just keeping track of what projects I've worked on. As such none of these PDAs really work for me, and I have "adopted" the Franklin system for my own uses. So there you go. Anybody want to buy a Aero 2130 with PocketPC upgrade cheap? |
| #10 By 116 (129.116.86.41) at 11/5/2001 1:33:55 PM |
| How much is cheap Soda? |
| #11 By 135 (208.50.201.48) at 11/5/2001 4:01:50 PM |
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#16. FUD? Don't think so. My company has standardized on iPaqs and everybody who has them really loves them. The corporate world does want all of the functionality that PocketPC offers, especially wireless ethernet, etc.
But with the economy as it is, there are more important things to go spend money on. |
| #12 By 135 (208.50.201.48) at 11/5/2001 4:03:47 PM |
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RedAvenger... I don't know, $150? It has the PocketPC upgrade w/24Meg RAM, extra AC power adapter and serial cable. I just don't really have a use for a PDA.
email me ssheldon@sodablue.org |
| #13 By 135 (208.50.201.48) at 11/5/2001 4:07:04 PM |
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#18. I'm *REALLY* not interested in a cell phone that does internet or scheduling.
What I want is a cell phone that's super small and can be utilized as a data communication channel for other devices. i.e. provides a wireless routing to my laptop, PDA, whatever. That's where the future is, not in thick client telephones. |
| #14 By 135 (208.50.201.48) at 11/5/2001 5:14:39 PM |
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#22. Didn't say I don't like the direction PocketPC is going. Just think it's stupid to tie the cell phone in with the PDA, wireless internet, etc.
If you think PocketPC is dead, you are very much mistaken. I honestly see it as a replacement for laptops. If I was traveling more, I'd have an ipaq to do email and such on the plane instead of lugging a big heavy notebook. Honestly I don't see the point of this argument. You obviously hate Microsoft and can't see anything they possible do which is good. So why don't you just not buy Microsoft products and move on with your life? |
| #15 By 135 (208.50.201.48) at 11/5/2001 5:15:33 PM |
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#22. Oh that's right. Because Microsoft makes some good stuff and other consumers realize that, so they buy it. This terrifies you because you are now realizing that maybe you haven't made very wise choices.
Give it a few years, you'll come around. |
| #16 By 135 (208.50.201.48) at 11/5/2001 8:56:07 PM |
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#25. Oh, I see what your problem is.
Yep, MS is making this PocketPC thing available for cell phones. Is that the direction PocketPC is going? Nope, because as you just saw PocketPC 2002 is a very PDA dependent enterprise. So while I disagree with the cell phone thing, I don't disagree with the overall direction of PocketPC. As far as bloat. PocketPC ran faster than the old WinCE on my Aero 2130. Actually with the new OS it runs twice as fast. I guess speed improvements qualify as bloat in your book. Why have a different OS? Well PDAs tend to lack harddrives, or hadn't you noticed? As far as sales... you seem to be caught in some sort of swamp of non-reason. With PDA sales down sharply across the board, the balances in marketshare are not that relevant. A large aspect obviously is the upcoming announcement of new PocketPC devices, but also that PDAs are pretty much a luxury good for business, and times are tight which explains the sharp decline in overall sales in the market. But again, I just don't see why you want to argue this point. If you don't like PocketPC don't buy them. Or are you so terribly frightened you might be wrong? |
| #17 By 1845 (207.173.73.201) at 11/6/2001 11:05:01 AM |
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I just need to say that I'm am so very tired of hearing the tech buzz word "bloat". It seems to me that bloat is what happens to a person who has indigestion. In the software world, people use this term to mean "anything I don't like". I have a friend who has never had a computer which participated on a network. To him, I imagine, the offline files capabilities of Windows 2000 would be bloat. To me, a person who uses a laptop about 95% of the time, I am quite fond of offline files. To me it is a staple feature. A person who would pay Sony or Apple or some other $300 for an MP3 player, probably wouldn't consider Pocket Media Player in the Pocket PC bloat. Someone who uses his PocketPC as a calendar so he doesn't forget his anniversary and get his wife mad at him might consider Pocket Media Player bloat.
Pocket PC devices are wonderful things. They allow people with different needs to do many different things. They can appeal to more than just a niche market (I'm not saying Palm appeals only to a niche market, so don't flame me.) by offering many things to many people. Quite obviously this means that there are some features that one type of person will never use. This also means that they will be essential features to other people. This is like me with Visual Studio 6. I use Visual C++, Visual Interdev, and Visual Basic but I never use Visual FoxPro. Doesn't mean FoxPro is bloat, because others use it quite a bit. |
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