Thursday, November 14, 2002
Pocket Office and the Truth About the 3rd Party Market
Posted by Jason Dunn in "THOUGHT" @ 01:30 AM
Just in case you didn't know, Palm kicks the Pocket PC's butt when it comes to working with Microsoft Office Documents. :oops: Just how badly? This Brighthand article does a good job of showing the differences, and it's something that Microsoft should be embarrassed about (I believe they are). Simply put, if opening Word and Excel documents, making edits, and sending them to someone else is an important part of your daily work, the Pocket PC isn't a good choice. It pains me to say that, but it's the truth (granted, no mobile device supports commenting and change tracking, so as a writer I can't use anything out there).
So why doesn't DataViz, the creators of the impressive Documents To Go, make their solution available for the Pocket PC? I believe it's because they fear Microsoft will make their software obsolete if and when Microsoft enhances Pocket Word and Pocket Excel. This is common in the computer industry - when Microsoft enters some markets, they inadvertently kill off the vendors in that market. Sometimes they want to do this (NetScape), but in a smaller market (Pocket PCs) this is the last thing they want to do. Unfortunately, as we wait for Microsoft to come out with a better solution, as consumers we lose. Remember this the next time you wail for Microsoft to release Pocket PowerPoint - odds are it would be as feature-limited as Pocket Word is, and we'd lose the excellent solutions already in the market today.
A quote from the Brighthand article:
"Take the word processing and spreadsheet software that comes with your typical handheld computer, for instance. Most people assume that Pocket Word and Pocket Excel on a Pocket PC handles Microsoft Word and Excel documents better than a third-party application, such as DataViz's Documents To Go, on a Palm Powered handheld. After all, Microsoft makes both products so naturally it should be more consistent, and more compatible. But in a recent hands-on study conducted by Brighthand, we found that a Palm handheld with Documents To Go does a significantly better job of handling Word and Excel documents than does a Pocket PC using Pocket Word and Pocket Excel. Surprised? So were we."
This is certainly no secret in the PDA world, and I have to admit I rolled my eyes a little when I read the above paragraph - I seriously doubt the author was surprised by the results. This gives the article a decidedly insincere tone. However, the truth remains that Microsoft needs to greatly enhance Pocket Word and Pocket Excel before the Pocket PC can fulfill its destiny as being the best portable companion to desktop data.
Until that happens, we can only sit here and grumble. :wink: Thankfully, there is a glimmer of hope. Curious how it didn't get mentioned in the Brighthand article as a partial solution at least?
So why doesn't DataViz, the creators of the impressive Documents To Go, make their solution available for the Pocket PC? I believe it's because they fear Microsoft will make their software obsolete if and when Microsoft enhances Pocket Word and Pocket Excel. This is common in the computer industry - when Microsoft enters some markets, they inadvertently kill off the vendors in that market. Sometimes they want to do this (NetScape), but in a smaller market (Pocket PCs) this is the last thing they want to do. Unfortunately, as we wait for Microsoft to come out with a better solution, as consumers we lose. Remember this the next time you wail for Microsoft to release Pocket PowerPoint - odds are it would be as feature-limited as Pocket Word is, and we'd lose the excellent solutions already in the market today.
A quote from the Brighthand article:
"Take the word processing and spreadsheet software that comes with your typical handheld computer, for instance. Most people assume that Pocket Word and Pocket Excel on a Pocket PC handles Microsoft Word and Excel documents better than a third-party application, such as DataViz's Documents To Go, on a Palm Powered handheld. After all, Microsoft makes both products so naturally it should be more consistent, and more compatible. But in a recent hands-on study conducted by Brighthand, we found that a Palm handheld with Documents To Go does a significantly better job of handling Word and Excel documents than does a Pocket PC using Pocket Word and Pocket Excel. Surprised? So were we."
This is certainly no secret in the PDA world, and I have to admit I rolled my eyes a little when I read the above paragraph - I seriously doubt the author was surprised by the results. This gives the article a decidedly insincere tone. However, the truth remains that Microsoft needs to greatly enhance Pocket Word and Pocket Excel before the Pocket PC can fulfill its destiny as being the best portable companion to desktop data.
Until that happens, we can only sit here and grumble. :wink: Thankfully, there is a glimmer of hope. Curious how it didn't get mentioned in the Brighthand article as a partial solution at least?
