"Palm Computing Holding Off WinCE Says Gartner "
February 23, 1999
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA: 3Com's Palm Computing will continue to scoot away with the lion's share of the handheld computing market for the next three years, despite the millions being invested by Microsoft in its Windows CE platform, according to the Gartner Group's mobile market analyst, Ken Dulaney.
On handhelds, Dulaney said 3Com's Palm devices held around 70
percent of the market, compared with Microsoft's 20 percent. But the
situation is even worse for Microsoft, Dulaney said, since Gartner's
research showed many WinCE devices ended up in a drawer after a
few days, while most Palms remained in daily use.
The problem is the Windows-like interface, which doesn't work well on
the small handheld screen; and Microsoft's ham-handed attempts to
improve it. "It will take another year before they can develop a better interface, " he said. That would leave 3Com "on a roll for the next three years ".
Dulaney also noted some other mobile computing trends. Really good
smart phones with built-in Web access via a "microbrowser" will begin
to appear in the next couple of years, he said. A Motorola-Cisco
venture to deliver Web content to phones is one to watch.
The growing number of "mini-notebooks" is failing to find a real
end-user need - and the concept may be in trouble. The minis look
cute but are hobbled, in Dulaney's view, by "ergonomically
compromised" screens and keyboards; applications that are
incompatible with desktop machines; e-mail attachments that can't
be read; and poor synchronization.
Reported By Newsbytes News Network, newsbytes.com
Mang |
