Yet another “hey, let’s provoke some headlines and controversy” article over at CNet about the death of the PDA. Which is ironic, because Margie just indicated she needs to replace her old Palm 105.
I can understand why some folks ringing the death knell — the market for PDAs is not only flat, but receding, they’ve become commodity items, Sony’s dropped out of the picture, cell phones do a lot of PDA functions, etc.
Looking at my own PDA use, it’s gone from a “I use this actively every day” to “I notice it when it’s not with me, but it’s not the be-all end-all of my personal data.” I don’t see getting a phone with PDA functions (navigating via the phone keypad on a tiny screen is not my idea of a good time), but I can certainly understand the attraction of carrying around one fewer widgets.
It will be interesting to see where the market is — and my own needs are — in a year or so, when is start looking at replacing my current Palm Tungsten W. Having a place to carry my calendar and phone list and take notes and so forth is still very valuable, but I’m not sure there isn’t an alternative of some sort coming down the line. I just don’t see anything out there yet that’s quite it.
I use my Sony Clie every day, many times a day. I use it to read books (at work), to manage various databases (books owned, books sought, etc.), to keep track of things for the blog, for shopping lists, and much more.
I can’t see a phone doing all that. I’m not sure, also, if I want all my functionality in one thing that is controlled in part by paying an ongoing fee to a third party (the phone company). I’d rather have different devices for information mangagement (the PDA), music (an iPod or something along those lines) and communications (the phone).
Agreed. I also go through cell phones a lot faster than PDAs, and moving data from one to another seems a lot more problematic.
Then there are guys like me, who own neither a PDA nor a cell phone.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to go upgrade my stone knives and bearskins.
🙂
Fortunately, nobody thought this was about Personal Displays of Affection … which would put “Looking at my own PDA use, it’s gone from a “I use this actively every day” to “I notice it when it’s not with me, but it’s not the be-all end-all of my personal data.” into a very different (and false) perspective.
Being in an industry where carrying a RIM device (two-way pager, a.k.a. Blackberry, Good), I’ve found that pretty much anything I would have used a PDA for, I now do on my RIM.
Email? Got it.
Calendar? Sure.
Contacts? You bet.
All synched to my Outlook at work.
I have no idea how this would work if I were trying to use the device as a private citizen and not through my company, though. Pretty much all of the really cool features are keyed off of a server specifically built for delivering these services.
I carried a Blackberry for a few months. Absolutely hated the PDA interface on it. Bleah. A for e-mail management, C- for calendar, contacts, notes, etc. Plus, I run a bunch of additional stuff on my Palm (photos, passwords, checklists, etc.).
My fear is that my job will become “immediate” enough that I’ll need to go back to carrying one.