Registered: Jan 2000
Location:
Posts: 434

ragamuffinn - You beat me to it. However, I have a radically different take on the article.

As I read the article, the versions of Word and Excel are the same ones that Microsoft ships with the Handheld PC platform (the one with the same form factor as a small notebook computer). Unless they've done alot of work retooling these apps for the handheld form factor, this is a big step backwards for PDA users, especially those in the Microsoft camp. Yeah. This is counter-intuitive, but stay with me here.

1. This effectively kills any independent development of word processing and spreadsheet apps for the CE platform. Who wants to compete with Microsoft, especially when they are bundling their stuff with the device for free?

2. Can you say memory hog? Not only are these apps fat, but so are their data files. My smallest Word files start at 20KB, and most are much bigger. On translating them to my Visor, they shrink to 1KB to 5KB. The lack of efficiency on the PocketPC means that they will have to be configured with even more RAM - if they are to achieve the same functionality as my Visor. This ups the cost of the device, and shortens battery life - things that the PocketPC can not afford to do, since price and battery life already sucks big time with CE!

3. As Eugene said, this will add competitive pressure to the Palm world. In fact, this very issue, document portability between the desktop and the Visor, has been the subject of a thread in the software section ( http://discussion.visorcentral.com/...TML/000529.html ). In any event, we all stand to reap the benefits of any threat from a competing platform!