Jeff Kirvin

The triumphant return of SkinUI (not a moment too soon) and why we don't need PalmSource after all. More on this week's Editorial review of Mobi-Systems OfficeSuite 7, and Gartner says the PDA isn't dead after all, but still manages to dis Palm. [details]

Unregisteed

If you count everything as PDA's (Treo's and LifeDrive's) then the Canalys numbers are surely what you are after. If it can run apps and fit in your hand they count it.

Looking at those numbers, despite the Treo, Palm OS is still down year on year, and is only 37% of the WM VS POS market, with WM the other 62% of course.

Still, more than 3 million units are being sold by traditional PDA makers (POS and WM), coming to >12 million per year, which matches or tops 2001 certainly.

Jeff Kirvin

Hi, Surur. I knew you'd post that. But I think it's worth noting that the massive growth in this market is in Europe and Asia, that US sales are flat. The Treo is just beginning to release into these non-US markets, so let's see if it eats into some of that WM marketshare when consumers have a choice between platforms.

strider_mt2k

Whoa, you can kick people in the head?
I'm just not that flexible man.

I have to differ on one thing, Jeff:

History shows that by the time the mainstream media gets ahold of many things, they have already passed.
I'm not saying that means that handhelds have, just that it's often the case.

The saturday night 1SRC chat is always interesting and fun.
Hearing from everyone in a live setting is really great, and much more dynamic than message forums!


We now return you to tonight's feature "Evil Trolls Attack Jeff Kirvin" starring Morgan Freeman as the president...

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Mike Thompson

LupeValenz

Heheaheahahahahahahehahehehehahahhahah :d

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Sony NX-Sony NZ-Sony UX-Sony TH55-Treo 650- Treo 755P-iPod Touch->Palm Pre

Unregistred

I think thats a bit of an unfair characterization. Jeff complained about uninterpretable numbers (I fully agree), so I provided some which speak for themselves. These numbers indicate that the Treo has not grown the Palm market yet, and as the Palm CFO said yesterday, appears to be cannibalizing the Palm pure-play PDA sales.

The Gartner report said something very interesting however, which was that most sales were to PDA upgraders, not new users. Should this inform marketing strategies?

Vampire Lestat

Hi Jeff,

Another good entertaining podcast. Thanks.

I have always said it and I will continue to say it, there is no way in hell PDAs are going to disappear. This product is destined to grow into a major mass market over the coming years.

Treos will will continue to sell well, but so will handhelds. Why? Because they have larger screens. The difference between watching a movie, surfing the Web, using an Excel sheet or playing a game on a 320x480 instead of a 320x320 is significant.

I predict that WiMAX and newer better variants will soon bring a permanent unlimited Internet connection to handhelds (much faster than cell phone bandwidth). Expect things like constant mobile MSN, push email, VoIP based videoconferencing, etc. The 320x480 devices will be the devices of choice for new wireless handheld.

Do not be surprised to see a trend towards having a nice 480x320 WiMAX fully connected handheld accompanied by mini cell phones.

I believe that Palm Linux is the way of the future and PalmSource will continue to be the driving force behind Palm OS (not Palm, unless they buy PalmSource). Never forget that the Linux kernel will bring many new developers onboard and it will reduce time-to-market and reduce operation costs. We will also being seeing ports of many popular native Linux programs. These are exciting times for Palm OS and its transition to the Linux kernel.

Windows Mobile is 2005 is going to put a lot of pressure on Palm. However, with Linux, Palm could start scaring Microsoft a lot more. Microsoft is already scared of the Linux desktop version... don't kid yourself, they are praying that consumers give up on Palm before PalmSource has a chance to get things going with Palm Linux. Do not let that happen. Go buy Palms, tell your friends to buy Palms. As consumers, we need choice and the only way to maintain a healthy competition is to buy Palms.

strider_mt2k

I was just commenting on another growing trend.

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Mike Thompson

Dick Tracy

Jeff, thank you for doing another podcast. I missed the intro music. Won't be purchasing the MobiOffice Suite as I'm ok with DTG and like my available RAM. You (everyone) can choose what to put on your device and I'm fine with that. As far as all the PowerPoint stuff, they're just numbers and exist to tell stories of the "purchaser" of the graphics. Unless they are filed with a regulatory agency using bulletproof Defined Terms and calculation methodologies, they're just prestidigitation in my eyes and experience.

JAmerican

We CLIE people have CodeDiver to extend our VG area. For the halo, we have KeyQuick. I've remapped my keyboard a bit to open the Command bar and use Tab on my keyboard to switch from button to push button to drop-down list, etc. The main reason I state this is because people like Dimitry has made using Palm devices grand. Also that thumbboards on handhelds are very useful.

Docs To Go has a tool called DatavizTechTool, which makes it easier to copy large files that are apart of DocsToGo to MS or Int. Media. This gives you at least around 6MB of RAM back. If MobiSystem had something like this, it still would not be enough because they still need to incorporate a Active Text Field. When I press the Backspace button, HiLauncher (which is called when my Home button is pressed) comes up.

The Treo 650 does belong because its a wireless device. If they added it, it would have been close or would have beat WinCE. In my time, I've seen Treo 650s all over the place. The amount of Treo 650s I've seen to Windows CE devices is amazing.

I still think that when mini-tablets come around, there will be devices like the UX50 and HTC Universal popup.

JAmerican

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JAmerican

Handspring Treo 90 --> Royal RG135nx --> T-Mobile Sidekick --> T-Mobile Sidekick Color --> PEG-UX40 -- > PEG-UX50--> Samsung T629 (Returned) -- > Palm TX (SOLD)/T-Mobile Sony Ericsson T610(Defective) --> T-Mobile Dash(Broken Screen) --> ASUS EEE 1000H Black/Treo 800w/PEG-VZ90

Accesories: Transcend 16GB SDHC | 8GB Transcend microSD

Jeff Kirvin

Actually as tosbsas mentioned in the thread for the review, you can opt to install nearly everything to the card. The only thing that has to stay in RAM is the OfficeSuite front end app, about 700k. And if that's too much, you can probably use ZLauncher or PowerRun to move even that to the card.

Can't believe I spaced that. I'm blamin' the heat...

JAmerican

Ok fine, but the next problem is Enabling Active Text for thumbboards and keyboards. The backspace button acts like the Back button on a CLIE. This makes writing documents very difficult.

JAmerican

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JAmerican

Handspring Treo 90 --> Royal RG135nx --> T-Mobile Sidekick --> T-Mobile Sidekick Color --> PEG-UX40 -- > PEG-UX50--> Samsung T629 (Returned) -- > Palm TX (SOLD)/T-Mobile Sony Ericsson T610(Defective) --> T-Mobile Dash(Broken Screen) --> ASUS EEE 1000H Black/Treo 800w/PEG-VZ90

Accesories: Transcend 16GB SDHC | 8GB Transcend microSD

strider_mt2k

Excellent RAM info, thank you all very much!

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Mike Thompson

Simony

> Looking at those numbers, despite the Treo, Palm OS is still down year on year, and is only 37% of the WM VS POS market, with WM the other 62% of course.

Surur, I see you are still preaching the Gospel according to Saint Ed Hansberry, from the Book of pocketpcthoughts.com. Tell me, does St Ed think it's possible for Palm to do anything right? (Stupid question, really.)