| | William and Thread, RE: "Mr. Otellini said the industry already has blown past an earlier target, set four years ago by Chief Executive Officer Craig Barrett, of one billion cellular handsets and one billion "connected" computers, though few boast broadband speed."
If it's blown past the target, why aren't the results visible on the bottom-line? What's the margins on those? That's what I'm curious to know.
On another note, why is Motorola reportedly first in the GPS+PDA market (with its Dragonball chip)? Good grief.
finance.yahoo.com
garmin.com
It's a Palm OS too - so MSFT appears missing in action at Garmin as well, for the GPS-enabled PDA. (For those that don't know, Garmin is the leading GPS supplier.)
The high-end units, such as Garmin GPSMap 76S & Garmin's eTrex Vista should have MS & Intel inside, but don't. At a minimum, these units need integration with MS Outlook Contacts. The eTrex units are favored by my hiker friends and bicyclists (cute & tiny, light weight), while Garmin GPSMap 76S is favored by people like myself that are frequent GPS power users (larger screen better for car driving during work business trips, and it also duals for my hiking because the antenna is suppose to better than eTrex.) But it's pathetic to drive without "autorouting" and Outlook's address book. How could a traveler do without these?
In a different market (the two-way radio market), when a person looks at the Garmin Rino unit, it appears to challenge Motorola's grip on the two-way radio device market due to (the really cool) beaming of ones coordinates to others in your group, as well as Garmin's GPS inside a two-way radio. But if only it had a digital compass, weather channel, alt., and more memory, etc.
I'd gladly pay $1,000 to buy a unit with all 3: GPS, PDA, and mobile phone, with Outlook integration, 15 second satellite connection timespeed. But I'd pay $1500 if it also included everything else, all in one device: GPS, PDA, mobile phone, FRS/GMRS (for tradeshows where mobile frequencies get too filled and to also dual for hiking), digital compass (a must for a hiker and even the traveling exec), alt., and the weather channel (for the hiker).
I think the number of days a PDA can exist without having GPS is becoming numbered: a person should be able to click their address book and have autorouting up and running to reach their destination. It's archaic if these don't have it.
Of course, the ultimate device would be if it could beam a person's coordinates to a portal website so people always know where they can find you without having to call and ask. During a hectic launch last year, I received so many business calls from people, esp our EA, wondering which meeting I was in --- interrupting me in a meeting to find out which meeting I was in (sort of ironic) --- if she had a portal with access to my coordinates, it would have saved a lot of time. I think it would be great if my friends always had access to my coordinates too - sort of like Yahoo Instant Messaging but to the next level.
Regards,
Amy J |
|
