Sunday, December 28, 2003
Understanding The Smartphone Target Market
Posted by Ed Hansberry in "OFF-TOPIC" @ 06:00 AM
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,1403971,00.asp
There are a lot of devices out there for people on the go but these devices have specific target markets. When Tablet PCs were hitting the streets, a number of people posted that they were considering swapping their Pocket PCs for a Tablet PC. Well, that is fine, but the two have very little in common and shouldn't be compared to each other. Both products have areas they are strong in and both have areas they are weak in, but few areas overlap.
Now I hear people considering the same switch to a Smartphone. Again, this switch may be OK as long as you realize that the Pocket PCs and Smartphones have little in common. If you are new to mobile devices, you should get a good understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of PDAs with phone features and smart phone devices and then start looking at devices. To put it bluntly, MS Windows Mobile Smartphones are not designed to compete with Pocket PC Phones ore other PDA/phone combos like the Treo 600.
"Our early peeks at Microsoft's Smartphone platform—the phone-centric operating system that's part of the company's Windows Mobile family—didn't push our buttons. But now that we've had a chance to test the new Motorola MPx200 and the Samsung SCH-i600, we're ready to admit that our first impressions were wrong."
The article goes on to explain some of the areas a Microsoft Smartphone excels in. Personally, I am anxious to get my hands on one, but it is to replace my Nokia 3650, not my iPAQ 2215. There are too many things I use a Pocket PC for that I couldn't imagine using a smart phone for, like writing posts at Pocket PC Thoughts. :)
There are a lot of devices out there for people on the go but these devices have specific target markets. When Tablet PCs were hitting the streets, a number of people posted that they were considering swapping their Pocket PCs for a Tablet PC. Well, that is fine, but the two have very little in common and shouldn't be compared to each other. Both products have areas they are strong in and both have areas they are weak in, but few areas overlap.
Now I hear people considering the same switch to a Smartphone. Again, this switch may be OK as long as you realize that the Pocket PCs and Smartphones have little in common. If you are new to mobile devices, you should get a good understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of PDAs with phone features and smart phone devices and then start looking at devices. To put it bluntly, MS Windows Mobile Smartphones are not designed to compete with Pocket PC Phones ore other PDA/phone combos like the Treo 600.
"Our early peeks at Microsoft's Smartphone platform—the phone-centric operating system that's part of the company's Windows Mobile family—didn't push our buttons. But now that we've had a chance to test the new Motorola MPx200 and the Samsung SCH-i600, we're ready to admit that our first impressions were wrong."
The article goes on to explain some of the areas a Microsoft Smartphone excels in. Personally, I am anxious to get my hands on one, but it is to replace my Nokia 3650, not my iPAQ 2215. There are too many things I use a Pocket PC for that I couldn't imagine using a smart phone for, like writing posts at Pocket PC Thoughts. :)
