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Strategies & Market Trends : Technical analysis for shorts & longs -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Johnny Canuck who wrote (39799)	6/23/2003 8:09:06 PM
From: Johnny Canuck	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71628

Mind over mobile 6/23/2003 5:00:00 PM - Microsoft starts to think about life after Pocket PC by Shane Schick CE or not CE. That was the question. Microsoft thought it had solved the identity crisis facing its handheld operating system three years ago, when it changed the Windows CE logo to "Windows Powered," much like Sun Microsystems' recent rebranding of the Java programming language. Apparently it didn't work. Little more than a year later, "Windows Powered" was dropped in favour of Pocket PC. On Monday, to coincide with a less-than-compelling upgrade, Microsoft launched the Windows Mobile brand, which will also cover off its Smartphone technology. Pocket PC will live on -- sort of -- with the extended name Windows Mobile software for Pocket PC. Ever since it decided to take on the Palm OS, Microsoft has had a difficult time migrating the user experience its desktop customers enjoy to smaller devices. Windows Mobile software for Pocket PC (which I, like almost everyone else, will hereafter abbreviate to Windows Mobile) was originally designed for a very specific type of client. Not everything on Windows 2000, for example, was compatible with Windows CE, which frustrated many initial users. After the first iterations of CE failed to catch on, the introduction of the Pocket PC brand did a better job of distinguishing the differences, and Microsoft slowly learned that the killer application on the PC (like Excel) is not the same as the handheld, where e-mail drives the market. Microsoft's harshest critics have suggested that handhelds demand a complete reinvention of the Windows interface, which obviously looks best on the desktop. With Pocket PC, Microsoft seemed to acknowledge this, but over time enterprise users will demand a seamless transition as they move from one device to another. That's why in many respects, a common brand makes sense. If nothing else, Microsoft managed through Pocket PC to galvanize an OEM industry that had dragged its feet into the mobile computing economy. The first CE handhelds were much bulkier and ran for far fewer hours than their Palm OS counterparts. Today, HP's iPaq and products like it are genuine competitors to Palm devices. Although Monday's Windows Mobile announcement highlighted improved WiFi connections and e-mail synching, the upgrade and the new name suggest an R&D team that has either temporarily run out of ideas or that is chained to an unreasonable development cycle. In the long term, however, Windows Mobile may set the stage for a much more comprehensive OS that becomes as critical as its desktop predecessor. Some of the most interesting projects within Microsoft, like OneNote and SPOT, are based on the premise that enterprise workflow is undergoing profound changes -- we're accessing mission-critical data both inside the boardroom and out, on all manner of devices. If the notion of a handheld OS becomes antiquated, Windows Mobile software could be the foundation for a much wider set of appliances. What we still call Pocket PC may power a lot of tools that we won't necessarily carry in our pockets. As users alternate between handhelds, tablet PCs and notebooks, Microsoft will have to strive for a unified development process that ensures compatibility while recognizing the individual user needs of each device, and live up to the broad Windows Mobile name. You can't keep developing a desktop application and then, a year later, make it mobile. It's fine to be a one-stop OS shop, as long as you remember that Windows come in all shapes and sizes. sschick@itbusiness.ca