Wednesday, June 25, 2003
Handset or Handheld?
Posted by Andy Sjostrom in "THOUGHT" @ 02:30 PM
http://wirelessnewsfactor.com/perl/story/21765.html
The article "Farewell to Handhelds" presents some interesting food for thought. The theme of the article origins from the fact that General Motors (GM) chooses handsets (cell phones) over handhelds (PDAs) for deployment of a field force application. According to the article, this announcement is bad news for handheld devices in the business marketplace. The main reasons, as argued through the article, include:
1. Ease of use - a cell phone is said to be easier to use
2. Handheld like - new cell phones look more and more like PDAs
3. Handhelds miss the mark on familiarity, features, cost and support
I think the article is the result of poor analysis. Here's why:
First, it is a common mistake to believe that it is an either / or issue. Some business scenarios are best supported by advanced cell phones while other scenarios are best supported by PDAs.
Second, a platform decision made on a corporate level that concludes that a cell phone is generally better than a PDA for mobile solutions needs to be seriously questioned. Offline support, input methods, extensibility, familiarity (!) and features (!) speak for the PDA and against the cell phone.
Third, the key issue to consider is development platform rather form factor given the ongoing convergence between cell phones and PDAs. The question is Java vs .NET rather than cell phone vs PDA. If the decision is made on a platform level, then it is easier to meet the needs of more than one business scenario and still reap the benefits of a common infrastructure.
There are surely more convincing reasons to why GM should have looked at things differently and to why the article should have included a more analytical perspective. Do you agree?
The article "Farewell to Handhelds" presents some interesting food for thought. The theme of the article origins from the fact that General Motors (GM) chooses handsets (cell phones) over handhelds (PDAs) for deployment of a field force application. According to the article, this announcement is bad news for handheld devices in the business marketplace. The main reasons, as argued through the article, include:
1. Ease of use - a cell phone is said to be easier to use
2. Handheld like - new cell phones look more and more like PDAs
3. Handhelds miss the mark on familiarity, features, cost and support
I think the article is the result of poor analysis. Here's why:
First, it is a common mistake to believe that it is an either / or issue. Some business scenarios are best supported by advanced cell phones while other scenarios are best supported by PDAs.
Second, a platform decision made on a corporate level that concludes that a cell phone is generally better than a PDA for mobile solutions needs to be seriously questioned. Offline support, input methods, extensibility, familiarity (!) and features (!) speak for the PDA and against the cell phone.
Third, the key issue to consider is development platform rather form factor given the ongoing convergence between cell phones and PDAs. The question is Java vs .NET rather than cell phone vs PDA. If the decision is made on a platform level, then it is easier to meet the needs of more than one business scenario and still reap the benefits of a common infrastructure.
There are surely more convincing reasons to why GM should have looked at things differently and to why the article should have included a more analytical perspective. Do you agree?
