MaximumPC 2004 08

12 MAXIMUMPC AUGUST 2004

Are PDAs Dead?

Smartphones are stealing the spotlight from handhelds—

but will they kill them off altogether?

PDA enthusiasts everywhere shuddered when Sony recently

announced it was discontinuing its line of Palm-based Clie hand-

helds in all markets except for Japan. Is this the beginning of the

end for handhelds? Maximum PC examines the evidence.

QuickStart

The beginning of the magazine,

where articles are small

Smartphones are stealing the spotlight from handhelds—

announced it was discontinuing its line of Palm-based Clie hand-

helds in all markets except for Japan. Is this the beginning of the Requiem for a PDA.

YES NO

Smart phones are on the rise, particularly Handspring’s Treo 600.

The stats may be modest (144MHz ARM proc, 32MB RAM, 160x

resolution, 0.3 megapixel camera) but the execu-

tion is right on. Thumb typing on the built-in key-

board is a breeze, yet the entire unit weighs just

6 ounces and is about the size of a deck of cards.

Running Palm OS 5.2, you’ve got an all-in-one

phone/PDA that can surf the net without the kludgy

connectors required by handheld/phone interfaces.

Even the nominal handwriting recogni-

tion on PDAs is better than fumbling

with T9 English text messaging. But

foldout keyboards, like Think Outside’s

Stowaway Bluetooth Keyboard

($150, http://www.thinkoutside.com ), could

swing the balance back in favor

of phones. Text messaging, e-mail, and

tedious blog entries via cell phone are now

a piece of cake.

It’s only a matter of time before miniature hard drives

with low power requirements make their way

into smartphones. When they do, handhelds

will look even less attractive compared with the

knockout combination of phone, PDA, and mas-

sive storage capacity —all in a Treo-size package.

Let’s face it—PDAs will always boast brawnier processors than their

smarty-phone rivals. And brawnier processors

mean you can run more complex apps, search

faster, and play cooler games. When a laptop is

overkill, PDAs step up to the plate.

Smartphone screens are necessarily small, and

that doesn’t cut if for most work. Most hand-

helds offer easy-on-the-eyes 320x240 visuals, and Toshiba’s e

($600, http://www.toshiba.com ) is the first PDA to shine

at 640x480 resolution—high enough to do actual

work rather than jotting a few notes on the go.

The PDA can use its fast processor and large

capacity storage options to take on some of the

entertainment capabilities of laptops and become

portable media centers. Windows Media Encoder

(free, http://www.microsoft.com ) allows you to compress video to fit on a

Pocket PC, SnapStream’s Beyond TV 3 ($60, http://www.snapstream.com )

will format recorded television for your

PDA, and apps like DVD to Pocket PC ($25,

http://www.makayama.com ) automate the process

of compressing your DVDs to fit on external

media of any size. Games, MP3s, and mov-

ies wherever you want them—suddenly the

Treo looks a like a wuss, doesn’t it?

Ultimately, the threat to PDAs comes from both sides. Smart-

phones will continue to appeal to folks who want mobility and

convenience, and will inevitably co-opt more and more PDA-style

functionality. Meanwhile, power users will gravitate towards

ultra-mini PCs running full versions of Windows XP that are just

around the corner from Sony, FlipStart, and OQO. With smart-

phones on one side and mini PCs soon to be on the other, we see

the PDA market eventually getting squeezed to a sliver. Bummer!

OUR VERDICT