Dan Ingalls <DanI at wdi.disney.com> writes:

> Folks -
> 
> A couple of pretty interesting new PDA's on the horizon, allegedly
for spring delivery...

[ Individual details WRT diisplay size, color, CPU snipped ]

> Both have:
> Palm Pilot form factor
> Win CE 2.1 and a pile of apps

I realize that this is completely off topic, but...

Does it worry anyone else that all the neat, hot, new, and otherwise
Spiffy-Whizz-Bang innovations in PDA's are seemingly *ALL* converging
on the Windows CE platform?

Will Microsoft control the horizontaal and the vertical in the PDA
market, too?

As early adopters of high technology, it behooves us to at least give
a cursory thought to whose pockets we're lining, and what that means
from a strategic/market driven standpoint.

For instance, it's getting harder to be a PalmPilot loyalist, even
though the little beastie suits my needs nearly perfectly in every
other respect, because all the activity WRT Squeak and PDA's has been
largely centered around WinCE devices (The Zaurus port is a notable
and happy exception :)

I'm not suggesting that anyone let this *wholly* influence their
buying choices, just that we should be cognizant of which bandwagon
we're jumping on, lest we find that in reality the destination is a
marketplace devoid of choice (Or rather, devoid of choice as we know
it.  There's choice, similar to the way Communist elections were
run.. You get several choices, but all of them are approved by the
Body Politic :).

Whither the Itsy?  Come on
DEC/Compaq/Whatever-the-hell-you're-called-today, give us something to 
be excited about that doesn't have the subliminal subtext "Resistance
is Futile" written into the marketing text :)

-Chris P.
(P.S. I carefully considered buying a WinCE machine before I bought my 
new Palm III.  Decided against it for lack of good hotsync/software
integration at the moment.  That and I couldn't *bear* to give
Microsoft any more money :)
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|Chris Patti|ICQ#16333120|feoh at cosmic.com|Home #:(617)625-3194|JAPH|