.KEYWORD student
.FLYINGHEAD WINDOWS CE POWER OPINION CORNER
.TITLE A student’s view of Windows CE
.OTHER
.AUTHOR Dan Huber
.SUMMARY It’s a little known fact that one of our favorite Contributing Editors, Dan Huber, is in his junior year in high school. It’s hard to believe, because his writing is so professional. This month, Dan takes on a topic near and dear to his heart: the affordability of Windows CE devices for students. If you’re a student, a parent, or want to reach this incredibly valuable demographic, you should read Dan’s article.
Windows CE has had a short history. It’s come a long way from the meager operating system that powered small pocket organizers to powerful embedded portable computers that carry out a wide variety of tasks, many of which are far more complex than any other portable device could accomplish. Third-party developers worked hard to help drive this operating system even farther. No longer must you settle for just an address book and a lightweight suite of productivity applications — now you have access to such goodies as MP3 audio players, clones of popular console video games, powerful database applications, photo manipulation software, and much more.
The hardware that you run such software on has matured to meet the demands these intensive programs bring. Every new H/PC is bringing with it a color screen. Many are also Internet-ready with internal modems, a great convenience feature. The high-end Palm-sized PCs are equipped with brilliant color displays, too. I was able to demo a Hewlett Packard Jornada 430 Palm-sized PC, and I sampled an MP3 audio clip using the already-installed Utopiasoft Hum software for playback. I was impressed with the clarity of the music, especially as it was being outputted from a small speaker element. Windows CE has definitely grown and improved since the days of monochromatic H/PCs such as my ancient Philips Velo 500.
.H1 New products are great, but is the price too high?
As a student in high school, it seems to me that the price of the hardware has risen. The use of color displays has surely been a contributing factor to this. Although the convenience has increased significantly, and the applications for these devices have increased due to the color screen (such things as image viewers are really only appreciated in color), it’s also necessitated more powerful (and expensive) batteries to meet the demands of these screens. Increased storage has also become a trend with the better H/PCs and P/PCs equipped with 32 megabytes of RAM. Processor speeds have entered triple digits. The trend that Windows CE has taken is to be the personal digital assistant with a knack for multimedia.
While students probably aren’t the target market for Windows CE devices, students such as myself were once capable of keeping up with the market trends and the latest hardware. That possibility has faded somewhat with the higher costs of H/PCs on today’s market. It seems that companies sell their products best when they equip them to attract via flash and pizzazz. That’s not all that’s found in the new hardware, but it’s surely some of the more pronounced features of these devices. That’s what has possibly put the price just a bit out of reach for a lot of us.
This isn’t to say that Windows CE devices are all-around premium devices that only the affluent can afford. Palm-sized PCs are still quite affordable, though they personally don’t suit my tastes. I prefer the H/PC form factor, as I’ve always preferred a physical keyboard to handwriting recognition or software keyboards. Even the most expensive H/PC is far less costly than the average desktop PC.
Windows CE devices are also much less pricey than most laptop computers. It just seems that with the apparent shift from affordable monochromatic screens to expensive color displays the price has cleared the reach of my hands. This point seems to be one of the main targets that competing devices and their followers use against Windows CE hardware. However, when comparing the prices of devices, you must also take into account the fact that virtually no other PDAs offer the advanced features and functionality that Windows CE devices have.
In terms of software, I believe the costs associated with developing for the Windows CE community is what keeps us from seeing more software produced for Windows CE devices. It’s too risky to invest dollars and resources into development software and development time if you aren’t able to produce quality titles that users want, at least for the amateur programmers. When such a large amount of equity is at stake, we may lose the ambition to extend these devices beyond their current capabilities with new software. However, you may not mind the cost of developing for Windows CE if you’re able to produce titles that benefit yourself, and I find that’s the case many times as well.
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Fortunately, the costs of developing for Windows CE weren’t a boundary to some, and they’ve more than made up for the initial investment. For instance, look at the BSQUARE Corporation. Their products and service in the Windows CE market are outstanding, and help set the levels of excellence that others follow. Windows CE’s too expensive to program for an aspiring student, and I’ve simply come to accept that. I also imagine, though, that Microsoft wasn’t too concerned with this small niche of the market. However, like anything, the more the products sell, the cheaper they become.
I once considered Windows CE devices to be the poor man’s PC, giving you affordable access to some of the benefits of a full-strength computer at a fraction of the cost, with good portability to boot. With the frenzy over inexpensive Internet PCs and the costs of such computers rivaling the more expensive H/PCs, I can’t quite do that anymore.
If you aren’t able to afford the latest and greatest Windows CE technology, you should try your hand at auctions or second-hand sales of Windows CE devices. These devices, while sometimes lacking color screens, are still quite capable. Most Windows CE 2.0 generation H/PCs are still good, and some do have color screens. Your income as a student may well vary from mine, and this may not be a dilemma for you at all. And while hardware prices have increased a bit, software prices seem to have levitated at the same levels. With the maturity of some developers in the Windows CE industry, the software may not have dropped in price, but you could be getting more for your dollar as well.
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.H1 Bulk reprints
Bulk reprints of this article (in quantities of 100 or more) are available for a fee from Reprint Services, a ZATZ business partner. Contact them at reprints@zatz.com or by calling 1-800-217-7874.
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.BIO Dan Huber is a high school junior at Palmerton Area High School. He operates CEZone, a small and expanding Web site that covers all aspects of Windows CE, at http://members.xoom.com/CEZone/ and can be reached via email at wince@bigfoot.com.
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