Thursday, May 4, 2006
Brighthand: Happy Belated Birthday, Pocket PC
Posted by Jason Dunn in "ARTICLE" @ 09:30 AM
"I'll admit, I recently let an important anniversary pass by without making note of it. It was on April 19, 2000 in New York's Grand Central Station that Microsoft President and CEO Steve Ballmer unveiled the very first Pocket PCs. To demonstrate how far we've come since then, one of the companies that was demonstrating a handheld that day, HP, has since bought another one, Compaq. A third, Sharp, has dropped out of the world Pocket PC market and is now making Sidekicks for T-Mobile and Linux-based Zauruses. Yes, a great deal has changed since that day six years ago."
Mea culpa: I had forgotten about this as well. The Brighthand article talks about the changes that have taken place in the Pocket PC market over the past six years. I can't believe it's been six years! In April of 2000 I was working for Microsoft on a short contract, focusing on writing content and coordinating writers for the brand new PocketPC.com. It was pretty much an MVP writing crew (Chris De Herrera, Craig Peacock, Frank McPherson, Todd Ogasawara, Chris Meunch, Arne Hess, among others) and most of the writers are still focused on the Windows Mobile world. And at least one now works for Microsoft. ;-) I remember waking up at 5am on the morning of April 19th and meeting with the Web team to watch them push PocketPC.com live to coincide with the New York Grand Central Station launch of the Pocket PC by Steve Ballmer. What a day! Six years later, thanks to a great team of volunteers and all of you dedicated readers, I've been able to carve our a career in this space. I feel blessed and very fortunate to have my fate so intertwined with that of the Pocket PC. Here's to another six years! :way to go:
Mea culpa: I had forgotten about this as well. The Brighthand article talks about the changes that have taken place in the Pocket PC market over the past six years. I can't believe it's been six years! In April of 2000 I was working for Microsoft on a short contract, focusing on writing content and coordinating writers for the brand new PocketPC.com. It was pretty much an MVP writing crew (Chris De Herrera, Craig Peacock, Frank McPherson, Todd Ogasawara, Chris Meunch, Arne Hess, among others) and most of the writers are still focused on the Windows Mobile world. And at least one now works for Microsoft. ;-) I remember waking up at 5am on the morning of April 19th and meeting with the Web team to watch them push PocketPC.com live to coincide with the New York Grand Central Station launch of the Pocket PC by Steve Ballmer. What a day! Six years later, thanks to a great team of volunteers and all of you dedicated readers, I've been able to carve our a career in this space. I feel blessed and very fortunate to have my fate so intertwined with that of the Pocket PC. Here's to another six years! :way to go:
