VisorCentral.com - Headline: PDA Sales Slump, Lack of Corporate Demand to Blame

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-- Headline: PDA Sales Slump, Lack of Corporate Demand to Blame (http://discussion.visorcentral.com/vcforum/showthread.php?threadid=31806)

Posted by Keefer Lucas on 01-28-2003 07:59 PM:

Headline: PDA Sales Slump, Lack of Corporate Demand to Blame

http://biz.yahoo.com/rc/030127/tech_pda_sales_1.html

Reading this article I have two thoughts, the first being "Who the hell works for a company that dishes out PDA's?" I have friends that work in large law firms, and in high tech companies. Precisely none of them carry a company provided PDA. I have a feeling that company-gifted handhelds went out when the dotcom era ended.

My second thought, and I have shared it before, is that PDA sales are weak because the obsolence factor on PDA's is so low. Much to the industry's dismay, my VPL continues to perform its essential functions (and more) just fine. While the new Garmin iQue calls out to me (with its bastard stepchild take on the Visor Springboard module), many of the other features trumpeted in Palm OS 5 are just not compelling enough for me to shell out between $300-$600.

So the industry gets what it deserves.

Posted by argent on 01-28-2003 09:19 PM:

Re: Headline: PDA Sales Slump, Lack of Corporate Demand to Blame

quote:
Originally posted by Keefer Lucas
My second thought, and I have shared it before, is that PDA sales are weak because the obsolence factor on PDA's is so low.

For PalmOS, anyway. If you'd bought a Pocket PC when I bought my Visor Deluxe, you'd have to replace it by now. Even if you got an iPaq 3600 the PPC 2002 upgrade would have rendered it marginal, with only 32M of RAM and part of it chewed up by applications that didn't fit in ROM.

__________________
Rev. Peter da Silva, ULC 
<a href=http://www.taronga.com/~peter/>Ar rug t� barr�g ar do mhact�re inniu?</a>

Posted by alight on 01-29-2003 01:36 AM:

Keefer - completely agree

Both your points are, IMHO, right on target.

Said it before and I'll say it again, the "enterprise" (what a crazy concept!) is a myth dreamed up by the advertising and promotion world, which is the original "la-la land".

So much marketing is based on the mythical corporate market that, as you clearly pointed out, just doesn't work that way.

If only ... folks like HS could have the sight to see that mass marketing with the good stuff they have/had could be viable. But, frankly, I think the "corporate personality" is one of a short attention span - fun to invent new toys, no fun to hang in there with them. This results in the inertia that seems to be infecting the market.

It is also why you still sometimes open your neighbor's garage door with the remote to your garage door. And, the dependable cell phone? Let's fix that stuff before we move on.

Okay, I'll stop spittin' in the wind. But, again, just wanted to give a "me too" to the original post.

Posted by cml on 01-29-2003 11:53 AM:

Re: Keefer - completely agree

quote:
Originally posted by alight
And, the dependable cell phone? Let's fix that stuff before we move on.

There is a dependable cell phone out there: last-generation analog. I'm still on my Nokia 252. I had a bad run in with a Nokia 5180, noticing that the "clear digital" actually sucked and sounded like a MP3 ripped bad when there's no awesome signal. And AMPS is still supported across the nation (and the world!), as it was the first across-the-board system.

quote:
Originally posted by argent
For PalmOS, anyway. If you'd bought a Pocket PC when I bought my Visor Deluxe, you'd have to replace it by now. Even if you got an iPaq 3600 the PPC 2002 upgrade would have rendered it marginal, with only 32M of RAM and part of it chewed up by applications that didn't fit in ROM.

yep - even though it's becoming outdated Technology, the Visor, in terms of usability over time excels.

- cml

Posted by alight on 01-29-2003 04:38 PM:

Cell Phones

At the risk of taking us slightly off topic:

Russian Cell Phone "Spill"

Sympathies to all our Russian friends.
This is a double OUCH!

Posted by argent on 01-30-2003 10:22 PM:

Re: Re: Keefer - completely agree

quote:
Originally posted by cml
There is a dependable cell phone out there: last-generation analog. I'm still on my Nokia 252.

I haven't had many problems with last-generation digital (TDMA) either. Haven't tried CDMA. Have tried GSM and my god it's awful. I can see how they manage twice as many channels in the same space... they run their protocols right on the hairy edge of complete failure.

__________________
Rev. Peter da Silva, ULC 
<a href=http://www.taronga.com/~peter/>Ar rug t� barr�g ar do mhact�re inniu?</a>

Posted by Keefer Lucas on 01-30-2003 10:41 PM:

Re: Re: Re: Keefer - completely agree

quote:
Originally posted by argent
Haven't tried CDMA.

In my area CDMA is the best we can do; it means we end up watching a whole lot of television and print advertising for Sprint's PCS services that are completely unavailable...maybe if they spent as much on product roll-out as marketing they would get better market penetration (and I would have cause to revisit the Handspring web site again).

Posted by argent on 01-30-2003 10:50 PM:

Re: Re: Re: Re: Keefer - completely agree

quote:
Originally posted by Keefer Lucas
In my area CDMA is the best we can do; it means we end up watching a whole lot of television and print advertising for Sprint's PCS services that are completely unavailable.

Do you mean TDMA? PCS is a CDMA-based service.

__________________
Rev. Peter da Silva, ULC 
<a href=http://www.taronga.com/~peter/>Ar rug t� barr�g ar do mhact�re inniu?</a>

Posted by Keefer Lucas on 01-31-2003 05:41 PM:

Clarification

Verizon Wireless runs a CDMA network in my area (New England) but Sprint's PCS service is unavailable. That PCS runs on the CDMA protocol is immaterial; I can't access the Sprint service that makes the Treo worthwhile.

Posted by argent on 01-31-2003 05:58 PM:

Re: CDMA vs TDMA vs AMPS vs GSM...

Is this because your carrier isn't willing to activate the Treo 300, because you can't buy it except through Sprint, or because it's not compatible with non-PCS CDMA?

What about the Samsung i500 or Kyocera 7135?

But more to the point... I was talking about the qaulity of service. I'm sticking with TDMA/AMPS for the time being because GSM quality is so poor. But I haven't had a chance to compare CDMA... what's the quality like compared to TDMA?

__________________
Rev. Peter da Silva, ULC 
<a href=http://www.taronga.com/~peter/>Ar rug t� barr�g ar do mhact�re inniu?</a>

Posted by Toby on 01-31-2003 06:37 PM:

FWIW, PCS refers to the spectrum (1900 MHz). IME, coverage quality for AMPS is as close to universal coverage in the states as one can get. TDMA800 is reasonably close, since it's what most of the 'old' carriers picked for their digital 'standard', and it works on the same frequency as AMPS. It's hard to beat the coverage you get with a tri-mode/dual-band (AMPS/TDMA800/TDMA1900) phone in the continental US. Most of the CDMA and GSM carriers concentrated their build-out on the major MSAs and ignored the less populous areas. They may cover a great percentage of the population, but it's typically only when that population is in a certain area. When they all go home or take an exit off a major interstate, I bet the percentage drops significantly.

Posted by argent on 01-31-2003 08:03 PM:

This is getting pretty amusing.

Me: TDMA quality good, GSM quality bad, how about CDMA?

Response1: Can't get the CDMA service I want.

Response 2: CDMA coverage isn't as good as they say.

Cool, fine, but how does it sound?

PS: I can't wait for software radios to get into production. That'd turn the whole spectrum/network/802.11-vs-bluetooth stuff into a software licensing issue...

__________________
Rev. Peter da Silva, ULC 
<a href=http://www.taronga.com/~peter/>Ar rug t� barr�g ar do mhact�re inniu?</a>

Posted by cml on 02-01-2003 12:59 AM:

quote:
Originally posted by argent
This is getting pretty amusing.

Me: TDMA quality good, GSM quality bad, how about CDMA?

Response1: Can't get the CDMA service I want.

Response 2: CDMA coverage isn't as good as they say.

Cool, fine, but how does it sound?

IMHO with my experiences it sounds awful. The 5180i mentioned above is CDMA and ran on Verizon network (TracFone prepaid service)and it sounded pretty rough.

quote:
Originally posted by toby
IME, coverage quality for AMPS is as close to universal coverage in the states as one can get.

my point exactly! and although SMS messages, email, news and weather alerts were pretty cool, they were expensive (about 40 cents, or 1 TracFone unit per message, the equivalent of a 1 minute call) and the voice sounded like a bad MP3. So I am sticking with my trusty old 252 and will keep using it until the carriers stop supporting AMPS.

Posted by EJSHUMAK on 02-02-2003 07:25 AM:

Re: Headline: PDA Sales Slump, Lack of Corporate Demand to Blame

quote:
Originally posted by Keefer Lucas
http://biz.yahoo.com/rc/030127/tech_pda_sales_1.html

Reading this article I have two thoughts, the first being "Who the hell works for a company that dishes out PDA's?" I have friends that work in large law firms, and in high tech companies. Precisely none of them carry a company provided PDA. I have a feeling that company-gifted handhelds went out when the dotcom era ended.

My second thought, and I have shared it before, is that PDA sales are weak because the obsolence factor on PDA's is so low. Much to the industry's dismay, my VPL continues to perform its essential functions (and more) just fine. While the new Garmin iQue calls out to me (with its bastard stepchild take on the Visor Springboard module), many of the other features trumpeted in Palm OS 5 are just not compelling enough for me to shell out between $300-$600.

So the industry gets what it deserves.

Hate to drag this back on point--but--

YUP--exactly Keefer--
We're running Edges and Plats in an accounting // tax enviornment with great success and strong impetus not to upgrade-- What we have works for what we do-- Period

Posted by Keefer Lucas on 02-02-2003 03:29 PM:

Re: Re: Headline: PDA Sales Slump, Lack of Corporate Demand to Blame

quote:
Originally posted by EJSHUMAK

Hate to drag this back on point--but--

YUP--exactly Keefer--
We're running Edges and Plats in an accounting // tax enviornment with great success and strong impetus not to upgrade-- What we have works for what we do-- Period

I'll go out on a limb and suggest that, should an Edge or VPL perish in the line of duty, the firm would be more likely to source a replacement of the same model for less than $100 than, say, a new Palm Tungsten for $500 or more.

Posted by EJSHUMAK on 02-02-2003 07:20 PM:

yup

EXACTLY!!

Posted by Digisane on 02-10-2003 03:36 PM:

Re: Re: Re: Keefer - completely agree

quote:
Originally posted by argent
Have tried GSM and my god it's awful. I can see how they manage twice as many channels in the same space... they run their protocols right on the hairy edge of complete failure.

Using GSM. Complaining every minute of it.

No wonder Kyocera (which happens to be my phone) only made one GSM phone for this part of the world, the rest of their product inventory at their site, are ALL CDMA (Japan/Hong Kong/Korean/US) Market to my knowledge..

Sticking to the original topic, still using my VisorPro without much problems other than a battery-dead-and-black-screen-can't-startup-for-a-while scare.

I guess there are disadvantages to the company for making a product that lasts without a need for upgrade every few months.

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