The PDA Is Dead, Long Live The PDA

from the oh-come-on dept

I've argued about this before, but we're seeing more stories like this, so it's time to bring up the issue again. Lots of folks out there are spending time saying that the PDA is dead, and that it was never that big of a market anyway. The article claims that anyone who ever really wanted a personal digital assistant already has one, and now that market is being taken over by the so-called smartphone market. I still think these folks are missing the point. The smartphone market is simply the next generation of the PDA market - with a wireless connection. Go back two decades or so, when everyone was buying computers for personal productivity (just like how everyone was buying PDAs a few years ago). Then, along came the mainstream acceptance of the internet, and all computers started showing up with (a) ways to connect to the internet and (b) applications that made use of that connection. This is the same thing that's happening now with smartphones simply being the next generation of PDAs (adding a connection and applications that make use of the connection). However, you never heard anyone talking about the "death of the PC". It was just the rise of the internet. So, instead of focusing on the death of the PDA, shouldn't we be focused more on the "rise of wireless connectivity"?
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  1. identicon
    dorpus, 16 Oct 2003 @ 5:24pm

    Well

    People did talk about the "post-PC era" a lot in the late 90s. Sun, Dell, and many other makers came out with "network terminals" that were really just 1960s-style dumb terminals. That fad fizzled out fast.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Beck, 16 Oct 2003 @ 6:53pm

    One Device Instead of Two

    How does one use a smartphone to conduct business? For example, how can you consult your calendar to make an appointment with someone when your calendar is next to your ear? How do you tap out a note while you're on the phone?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    alternatives, 16 Oct 2003 @ 7:28pm

    Re: One Device Instead of Two

    As the owner of a visorphone the simple answer is a headset.

    A slightly simpler answer is to ask the person to hold on while you get their data.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    Reardon, 17 Oct 2003 @ 9:47am

    No, really, the PDA is dead

    I think you are generalizing the term PDA too much. Within the sentiment "the PDA is dead" is really a conclusion that Palm and WindowsCE are dead. And I agree with those conclusions.

    The question is whether the phones as we know them today, with their _existing_ software builds, are accreting the functions of PDA builds faster than the _existing_ PDA environments are becoming credible phone interfaces. Only the most rabid Palm bigot, could, for instance, could love any of the phone features, even of the latest Trio.

    Its interesting to note that the hottest new features, like cameras, in this market are attaching to mass-market, non-PDA-os, non-PDA-form-factor devices first.

    I see this less as mainframe vs. mini and more PC vs. workstation. The workstation environments (Sun, SGI, HP) did not migrate down-market, but rather Wintel migrated up-market. Even the highest-end applications of 1996 are now both available and credible on Wintel.

    -Reardon

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    Almost Anonymous, 17 Oct 2003 @ 12:44pm

    Re: One Device Instead of Two

    The P800 switches to speakerphone when opened in PDA mode. It switches back when the flip is closed.

    link to this | view in thread ]


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