Rocky,
Palm OS users are a tenacious and vociferous lot, not unlike MAC users.
I agree 100% with your post and cannot argue with Palm's success.
Palm is successful because of its size, simplicity, battery life, ease of use, reliance on basic functionality (that most end-users relate to) and cost.
Microsoft has been accused of trying to stuff a PC into a handheld and then charging an arm and a leg for bells and whistles. The OS is described as bulky and buggy. The devices are larger, heavier and more expensive than Palms or Visors.
When I faced my first (and only) palm-top purchase I chose a Windows CE device for several reasons. First, I think tht a palm device for PIM is overkill. I have all my PIM data stored in a paper monthly pocket calendar that I find easy to reference. I can look at a month at a time and access all of my most commonly needed phone numbers with one glance.
I was sold on Windows CE because of the breadth of the basic OS which allows very simple programs to be overlayed without much difficulty at all. I also was interested in a device with stereo output and a high-definition color LCD screen, something that Palm has intentionally avoided.
Although the Windows devices are pricier at this point in time they also offer a host of functions that Palm simply cannot. I use my handheld for storing a few of my favorite family photos. I use my handheld as an MP3 player. I use my handheld as an electronic foreign dictionary (that requires 5 MB of storage). I plan to use my handheld as a pocket reference for a drug compendium (once more software is available).
Most of the newer handheld applications follow the same general pattern. A relatively simple software program running on top of Pocket PC linked to on-board or removable storage. Whether it be accessing a reference manual, a phone list, an address book, a dictionary, a song list,... the key is to have modular storage. Palm does not currently offer this option. And if you use the latest MP3 module as an example you will see how much of a headache the design was. The add-on MP3 module required its own microprocessor and separate software programs to link to the host device. This doesn't seem to be an easy solution for module manufacturers.
According to Good Technology...
Mock and his team built the 2.13 x 2.22 x 0.35-inch MP3 module around a 74-MHz ARM7 processor from Cirrus Logic Inc., 64 Mbytes of NAND flash memory and a 1-bit D/A converter from Cirrus' Crystal division, at 24-bit resolution and a 96-kHz sample rate.
[snip]
There was also the task of writing three types of code — one for the ARM processor in the MP3 module, another for the Visor's 68000 processor interface and a third for the module to interface with the PC desktop application. Mock said that for the ARM processor code, his team developed its own real-time kernel specific to the Visor and to MP3 files.
In some ways Palm and Handspring have taken the same route as Sony in adopting proprietary standards that lock consumers into a single device family. Palm is stepping out of this mold next year with MMC/SDMC.
Who knows? Maybe by 2001 I will be a Palm OS fanatic as well.
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