Friday, October 17, 2003
Throwing Down The Gauntlet
Posted by Ed Hansberry in "THE COMPETITION" @ 09:00 AM
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/144310_palm17.html
Eric Benhamou, Palm's CEO, made some bold statements in Berlin this week.
"Palm Inc., the world's largest maker of hand-held computers, expects "in the near future" to gain users for its software from those who now use Microsoft Corp.'s Pocket PC operating system, its chief executive says. "We've received a lot of interest from people who up till now only considered Pocket PC," Eric Benhamou said in an interview at the European Technology Roundtable Exhibition conference in Berlin."
There is no question that PalmOS devices have some compelling hardware, especially in the area of screens, but they still lack the overall versatility that Pocket PCs have, especially when it comes to enterprise deployment. If you exclude the EM-500 from 3 years ago and the more recent 1910/1915, which both had very limited expansion capabilities, there hasn't been a Pocket PC that couldn't be integrated into most networks. They all support TCP/IP natively, have POP3/IMAP4 email support, ubiquitous, if limited, Pocket Office support without the need for desktop converters, etc. There are Palm devices that some of these features and others that don't. Some have it in ROM, others require you to install apps from the CD. Inbox solutions on the Palm aren't the same from OEM to OEM or even device to device sometimes.
Make no mistake though, Palm is poised to make inroads against the Pocket PC in both consumer and enterprise markets. Microsoft spent a whole lot of time basically porting Pocket PC 2002's UI to the newer Windows CE 4.2 platform. As a result, going from 2002 to 2003 looks like a minor revision on the outside but should pay off big dividends in the future. The Pocket PC team can now focus on the Pocket PC experience and not worry about basic things like incorporating Tap-And-Hold into the device. CE 4.2 has it. It is now up to Microsoft to push forward with the next revision, hopefully breaking the 320X240 screen resolution barrier and giving OEMs more room to innovate. HP is already doing so with the iPAQ 4300 series that has an integrated keyboard.
Palm wasn't doing much from 1999-2002 besides frantically working on OS5. They completed that and are pushing forward on OS6. Sony meanwhile has been wowing everyone with their hardware. During that time, Pocket PC made great inroads into the market going from 10% share to the mid 30% range. The next few years won't be so easy. Palm is no longer standing still. Your move Microsoft.
Eric Benhamou, Palm's CEO, made some bold statements in Berlin this week.
"Palm Inc., the world's largest maker of hand-held computers, expects "in the near future" to gain users for its software from those who now use Microsoft Corp.'s Pocket PC operating system, its chief executive says. "We've received a lot of interest from people who up till now only considered Pocket PC," Eric Benhamou said in an interview at the European Technology Roundtable Exhibition conference in Berlin."
There is no question that PalmOS devices have some compelling hardware, especially in the area of screens, but they still lack the overall versatility that Pocket PCs have, especially when it comes to enterprise deployment. If you exclude the EM-500 from 3 years ago and the more recent 1910/1915, which both had very limited expansion capabilities, there hasn't been a Pocket PC that couldn't be integrated into most networks. They all support TCP/IP natively, have POP3/IMAP4 email support, ubiquitous, if limited, Pocket Office support without the need for desktop converters, etc. There are Palm devices that some of these features and others that don't. Some have it in ROM, others require you to install apps from the CD. Inbox solutions on the Palm aren't the same from OEM to OEM or even device to device sometimes.
Make no mistake though, Palm is poised to make inroads against the Pocket PC in both consumer and enterprise markets. Microsoft spent a whole lot of time basically porting Pocket PC 2002's UI to the newer Windows CE 4.2 platform. As a result, going from 2002 to 2003 looks like a minor revision on the outside but should pay off big dividends in the future. The Pocket PC team can now focus on the Pocket PC experience and not worry about basic things like incorporating Tap-And-Hold into the device. CE 4.2 has it. It is now up to Microsoft to push forward with the next revision, hopefully breaking the 320X240 screen resolution barrier and giving OEMs more room to innovate. HP is already doing so with the iPAQ 4300 series that has an integrated keyboard.
Palm wasn't doing much from 1999-2002 besides frantically working on OS5. They completed that and are pushing forward on OS6. Sony meanwhile has been wowing everyone with their hardware. During that time, Pocket PC made great inroads into the market going from 10% share to the mid 30% range. The next few years won't be so easy. Palm is no longer standing still. Your move Microsoft.
