Will Cell Phones Squash Palm?

Will the wireless web disappear??? No. People want to receive only the things they want, that's true, but it's also true with an ordinary PC and the web didn't disappear either, did it? Some people just want to be able to surf the web from anywhere...

Either that or the airports will be filled with people shouting at their phones, "NO, I said I wanted movie tickets, not monster trucks!!"

While I can understand the appeal of all-in-one devices to some, I prefer to use devices that are optimized to thier purposes. A cell phone makes a great tool for talking to people, adding the functions for PDA starts to make for an unweildy device. A PDA is optimized for organizing your life, adding internet connectivity makes for a rather clunky box because of the extra hardware. Vitally important e-mails can be handled with a 2 way pager, the rest can wait.

I hope that specialized devices continue to exist even if we see the predicted convergence. If nothing else, I like to avoid single-point-of-failure situations.

It seems Mr Schwartz has entirely ignored those things the Palm does so well (schedule planning, to do lists, contacts with comprehensive notes and general electronic file management). He assumes the ONLY thing people want from a handheld is wireless e-mail and Web, yet the vast majority of Palm users DON'T surf the web with their Palm, they manage their lives. Palms are replacing paper planners for the masses, not replacing desktop computers or web browsers.

I'd be willing to wager Mr Schwartz doesn't receive any job offers from tech companies because of his commanding knowledge of the industry and his visions for the future.

I'd be willing to bet he will be reporting the sale of the 20 millionth Palm device long before my cell phone HotSyncs with my desktop computer just to do a simple back up!

w(9), w(9), w(9), .(1,1), p(7), a(2), l(5,5,5), m(6), i(4,4,4), n(6,6), f(3,3,3), o(6,6,6), c(2,2,2), e(3,3), n(6,6), t(8), e(3,3), r(7,7,7), .(1,1), c(2,2,2), o(6,6,6), m(6)

Is this more convenient?

Without a practical form of input, I doubt a cell phone can directly compete with a PDA (especially for net access).

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But for the rest of us who are moving more and more portable computing tasks into out palm, there's no way it's gonna replace it.

Imagine a phone has wide as a Palm. But a Visor with a phone springboard might sell!

This struck me as strange because there was a third popular OS EPOC32.

This didn't entirely surprise me because many of Psions products (original developers of EPOC) seem to have been ignored by the US were as here in the UK it seems to be vice versa with my search for UK vendors of Palm products has been extremely difficult.

Back to my point... My point really is that while the Palm OS has a wide following does not mean should dismiss any other PDA OS.

Both OS's have the flaws, PALM OS with its 4k record limit and its lack of a real word processor. EPOC with its limited US market appeal and its poor Sychronisation tools 'EPOC Connect'

But both OS's have there plus's to PALM OS has excellent Synch software and a compact design. EPOC has more powerful built in Apps (imho) and scalability in that not only can it run on a device such a Revo but also a Palm type device to even a sub notebook.

Basically just give it a chance, I use my Psion 5mx daily, alongside my Visor. I was willing to give the Palm OS a go and would be willing to give a CE device a go if I had the money.

Just dismiss EPOC or any other Pda OS without trying it first

Thanks for reading this and apologies to people who took up there valuable space on there palm/CE to read this

Chris (quite possibly stark raving mad)

and for you people who complained about text entry on a cell phone, get a nokia 82xx. i dare you. first, it has t9, second you can enter contacts in your pc and then send them to your phone, how hard is that? wake up people!

soon, when palms run on ARM processors and get more powerful you'll see. the avg. joe will have an advanced cell phone a la microsoft's stinger or the ericsson 380 or benefon's Q phone, and POWER users will be carrying their big, ugly pdas. get used to it.

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