T|X and the death of PDAs

[olderTechnology]

I should say, "death of PDA's, part 17", because it seems like every month the death of PDA's is announced.

Today as I was reading about the T|X in eWeek, I came across the following (http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1870368,00.asp):

"It seems like you rarely see anyone using a PDA anymore unless it's for business, and it doesn't feel like the market is going to grow," said Martin Reynolds, an analyst with Stamford, Conn.-based Gartner Inc. "Consumers are driving convergence onto the smart phone platforms, because they want some of the calendar-type functionality of handhelds, but they don't want something larger than a phone in their pockets."

Now, I've seen this Martin Reynolds quoted before, saying the same thing. What I want to know is this: when have you ever seen anybody using a smartphone as a calendar. I'm not counting PDA phones like the Treo. Smartphones are usually Symbian, but often Windows Mobile, and they don't have touch screens. Who uses them as organizers? That's right, nobody. Let me know if I don't get out too much or something, but I see paper calendars and PDA's or PDA/phones. Where are these "consumers" that are abandoning PDA's for smartphones?

Any comments?

[Dick Tracy]

Gartner has their own perception of the Universe which I take with a years' supply of salt licks for the cattle farmers in Texas. Most of the smartphone users I've been exposed to still can't silence them during meetings and I am apt to think their VCRs never got the clock set before they were relegated to Goodwill. They do know how to play the little games on their phones though.

[salesrep]

97% or so of people I've seen with a smart phone including the Treo don't know how to use much more than just the basic phone capabilities, the games that came on them, and the camera in the back. When I start inquiring about different capabilities here or there, they come back with a blank stare. My 97% might be off a little, but by far most of the people I've seen with them.

I tried going with the Sony ux50 for a while before I discovered that Sony made the th55/e over there across the pond, but I couldn't stand the smaller screen (even at the same # of pixels,) so the display on a Treo or the like wouldn't be for me. As far as I am concerned, congrats to whatever you use. . .I just don't like paper much.

olderTechnology--always nice to hear from someone here in the metroplex! My uncle and I used to sail his 22' MacGregor at Lake Lavon. How's Wylie these days?

[olderTechnology]

Hi salesrep, Wylie is fully in the grip of housing growth now. If you grew up going to Lake Lavon then you wouldn't recognize the Wylie we have now, except that we have preserved our quaint little downtown nicely. (The usual antiques shops, etc.) We have our own Wal-Mart, Home Depot, etc., and down the road there is the new Firewheel Town Center (http://www.michaelholden.net/mall.htm), a sort of outdoor mall. I can't say anything particularly good or bad about all of this, but it's inevitable when you live at the edge of Dallas.

The people I know who own Treos or HP 6300's or whatever, are usually former PDA owners or savvy tech people. Those people are definitely cannibalizing PDA sales, but they are not abandoning the PDA lifestyle, they're just adding a phone to it. The so-called "smartphone" owners, on the other hand-- I can't see that they were looking for PDA functions or cannibalizing PDA sales.

Another thing Gartner doesn't talk about, is that the drop in PDA's (at my workplace at least) seems directly related to the growth in the number of laptops that are provided by management. A lot of the early adopter types whom I knew, were using their Palms as substitute laptops (with keyboards and everything). When the real thing came along, they dropped the substitute.

[ebernie]

I've seen a lot of people using the equivelant of i-mate jam in your country. Most of them don't know they can sync calendars to their phones. So, yeah, PDAs are dying... NOT.

If PDAs are dying Palm wouldn't announce nor manage to sell anymore PDAs and M$ wouldn't keep churning out new versions of Windows Mobile, would they?

[Tam Hanna]

Yeah, I also se loads of people with the HTC Magician in Austria as it is sold for 50€ with contract. However, as said, most of the users have very little knowledge of the box and dont even know that they can install apps,... .