PDA Development scope

Archived from groups: comp.sys.handhelds (More info?)

Will there be a big scope for PDA Application development, or will that
vanish like WAP?

Thanks,
Benny

Archived from groups: comp.sys.handhelds (More info?)

Benny.A@gmail.com wrote:
> Will there be a big scope for PDA Application development, or will that
> vanish like WAP?

I'm having trouble understanding what you mean. Are you asking if PDA software
will be a 'big market?'

If so, I think it's already pretty big, and with people switching from
PDAs to cellphones-with-PDA-functionality, I don't think it's going to
get much smaller, as a whole. Specific markets (PalmOS vs PocketPC vs ...)
may come and go, of course.

-bill!
bill@newbreedsoftware.com Have I been helpful?
http://newbreedsoftware.com/ http://svcs.affero.net/rm.php?r=billkendrick

Archived from groups: comp.sys.handhelds (More info?)

On Tue, 7 Dec 2004 21:50:14 -0500, "Colbyt"
<colbyt@stopspam.lexkyweb.com> wrote:


>"William Kendrick" <bill@newbreedsoftware.com> wrote in message
>news:tOstd.10048$_3.117762@typhoon.sonic.net...
>> Benny.A@gmail.com wrote:

>> > Will there be a big scope for PDA Application development, or will that
>> > vanish like WAP?

>> I'm having trouble understanding what you mean. Are you asking if PDA
>software
>> will be a 'big market?'

>> If so, I think it's already pretty big, and with people switching from
>> PDAs to cellphones-with-PDA-functionality, I don't think it's going to
>> get much smaller, as a whole. Specific markets (PalmOS vs PocketPC vs
>...)
>> may come and go, of course.

>> -bill!
>> bill@newbreedsoftware.com Have I been
>helpful?

>> http://newbreedsoftware.com/
>http://svcs.affero.net/rm.php?r=billkendrick

>An opinion from a PDA newbie whose first computer was a TI-994A. And finds
>most PDA 3rd party software similar to the cassette software of yore (pretty
>basic).

>The potential is the same as for the guys who wrote the first popular ms-dos
>software.

>The market is going with windows mobile.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Well, no, it is not. Actually, as far as the last couple of
years indicates, sales of Windows CE for Pocket PC have stagnated.
Some of the Palm market has switched over to RIM Blackberry -- not
Windows CE. That trend may have run its course and there may be
a backlash coming with people returning to Palm as they find out
that Blackberry 3rd party software is sparse, very expensive, and
not likely to change in those respects.

> Palm will double Apples current
>market share.

>Compile and win with windows. Pun intended.

Ok. Let us take a moment and look seriously at a question
you have not considered. Is it likely that Microsoft will continue
developing Windows "Mobile" (CE for Pocket PC or the same thing
under a new name), say, 3, 5 years from now? There is some reason
to doubt this. As I have said, growth of WinCE in Pocket formats
is currently stagnant and has been for a long while now. Moreover,
the big hope -- that WinCE would someday take off in the truly
lucrative "Home Entertainment Field" is now a dead issue.
Microsoft has clearly thrown its efforts into pushing WinXP in the
home enterntainment field (and that is ignoring the XBox which is
also "Not-WinCE" ). Moreover, WinCE is pretty much dead in the
"Industrial Embedded" world too. If Linux bites significantly
into the XP market (and there are already signs of that happening
in the Dual Processor server field), then the investment market
may have to wonder about the future of Microsoft where their
main OS might no longer be a "cash cow". If doubts become
serious, then the stock might take a hit. That might not even
be a big hit, but one would expect MSFT to respond. What would
MSFT do to please investors? Most likely they will "drop marginal
efforts." It would not take a huge incentive for MSFT to do so.
They dropped MSX-DOS at a time when they were in rapid growth
mode and certainly could have afforded to continue its development.
They certainly were not losing money or facing a drop in share
value when they stopped "support" of MS-DOS either. Faced with
this, what will be a "marginal" product for them to drop from
their lineup? Sure looks like Windows CE to me. . . .

PalmSource and palmOne appear to be surviving, and overall,
one can be assured that PalmSource will be continuing to
develop PalmOS software. It will not matter whether it eventually
runs on another Kernel, it will still be PalmOS software. Just
as "real Windows" (x86 Windows) software can (and does) run on
Linux now. Moreover, the installed based of Palm is still much
larger than Pocket PC, and even if Palm sales do *not* regain the
1st spot this will be so for a few years.

You seem to see the industry in a "Pocket PC v. Palm" issue.
There is more to the industry than Palm and Pocket PC. This is
just a part of the whole computer industry. MSFT in particular
will make decisions about Pocket PC based on its other products.
That was clearly why they never allowed Pocket Word and Pocket
Excel to be compatible with big Word or big Excel. Obviously
they could have done so since Palm 3rd party software is compatible.
You have to look at a bigger picture.

As for the safest development platform, well, I would say that
it is probably Java. The cell phone companies seem to like it
and so does the "big business" world. Java even runs on RIM
devices, so if RIM continues its climb, Java will still be the
safe haven.

--
The Moving Target: mobile information technology
http://www.pathcom.com/~jimomura/