.KEYWORD changes
.FLYINGHEAD PALMPOWER OPINION CORNER
.TITLE PDAs then and now
.OTHER
.SUMMARY Mark Asadoorian has been carrying a PDA in one form or another since 1989. He has owned, used, and sold or traded pretty much every style PDA since then. In this article, he shares with us his personal odyssey with PDAs, which you’ll find as a pretty good indicator of the evolution of the format in general.
.AUTHOR Mark Asadoorian
I’ve been carrying a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) in one form or another since I received my first one back in 1989. That unit was a Sharp OZ-7000. I’ll talk a little more about this unit in a minute. Since then, I have owned, used, and sold or traded pretty much every style PDA the designers have managed to come up with. Recently, I’ve been following the debate about the merits of the Palm OS vs. Windows CE with great interest. Now that Palm, Inc. has announced its first color unit, it has occurred to me that my personal odyssey with PDAs is a pretty good indicator of the evolution of the format in general.
I should point out right up front that I am an avowed collector of electronics. My wife smiles serenely whenever I start babbling reasons and excuses for my next purchase, knowing full well that the disease of acquisition has me in its clutches. However, I do use these units, and use them a lot, so they have become an essential tool I’ve come to rely on, almost completely replacing my paper-based organizers. The issue I have pondered recently is how these machines have changed over the last ten years or so, and if these changes have given us machines that are more meaningful.
All PDAs of today are descended from units that were originally designed as electronic organizers. Some of today’s units do so much more that it’s hardly fair to think of them in those terms. That old Sharp OZ-7000 I used (and still have, though it sits on a shelf basking in retirement these days) was a great example of an early design concept, though flawed. It opened like a book, only from the left. The tiny screen was on the left side, on top, above an expansion slot. This slot accepted proprietary cards that added to the functionality of the unit. I never bought any cards, but I know there was a spreadsheet available as well as a game card. The right side of the unit contained the tiny keyboard, laid out in alphabetical order. This was the unit’s weak point. Typing was very frustrating for someone familiar with a QWERTY layout. Below the letters was a numeric keyboard for calculator functions, and above the keyboard were the application keys. The applications were the standard ones including schedule, calendar, contacts, a memo pad, and calculator. Back then Sharp used their own OS (later they offered units using Windows CE). It was complex and a bit confusing, though loaded with features, all of which was expanded and carried over later in their Zaurus line of organizers (yes, of course, I bought a Zaurus). Unfortunately for Sharp, the units and the OS were never really accepted. Even with the unit’s faults (who knew any better then, anyway?) I used it constantly. It was a huge help. It started me on the way to complete electronic organization!
Though still in its early stages, the acquisition bug was upon me. I soon found myself nosing through the computer stores where I discovered a little-known unit by a company called Psion. The model 3A, purchased on the spot, was just introduced, having replaced the smaller and less advanced model 3. This was a clamshell design with a miniscule keyboard and another unheard of (to me) OS called EPOC. The powerful applications included, among others, a word processor, a spreadsheet, a suite of organizing functions including a calendar, and to-do list. It also included a complete programming language built into the unit! Basically, it pretty much included all the functionality of today’s best machines. And its digital sound system and recording application was actually superior to many of today’s units. It only had 512K RAM, a paltry amount by today’s standards, but the OS was (and still is) very efficient and you could pack a lot of data in. It also had two expansion slots that utilized proprietary cards for additional storage and backup. I still have this machine, as well, and my daughter uses it all the time, though it’s starting to show its age. Psion is still very much in evidence in this market, and is a force to be reckoned with. Their OS is quite good. They lag behind only in market recognition and support in this country. Its interesting that one of their earliest units offered such a complete package.
Since the designers and manufacturers seem able to time new releases in perfect harmony with my ability to buy, each new release finds me standing in front of the display case, fondling the machines and fiddling with the keyboards. I watched as they grew both in size and functionality. Memory increased slowly from the half-megabyte of RAM on the Psion all the way to today’s 32MB machines. I watched as displays went from black and white, to 4 bit grayscale, to 16 bit grayscale, and, eventually, color. There was one Casio unit (I forget its name, but I remember that I just had to have it) that offered a three color screen. It was a palmtop and the colors were pretty grim, but hey it was color! I used that unit until it was lost. Today’s screens boast 65K colors and are a marvel to behold.
But let’s think about what we have today. On one hand we have the Windows CE machines. They offer prodigious amounts of RAM, color screens, various expansion slots, built in modems on the handheld devices, and various other bells and whistles. They aren’t merely organizers anymore.
On the other hand, we have the Palms OS. It has evolved from a basic electronic organizer that did its job simply and effectively, to an elegant electronic organizer that does its job simply and effectively. The debate over Windows CE vs. Palm OS rages. I notice Microsoft is trying mightily to retain the Windows CE feature list but make it more "Palm-like" (my terminology), and I notice Palm, Inc. has announced a color unit, ala Windows CE. Amazing. The whole industry is changing and so are the designs, all in an effort to get or retain market share.
But, what about the machines themselves? They are certainly more feature rich, have more RAM, better screens, and certainly, on the handheld devices, much better keyboards. Some offer MP3 stereo playback. They have better expansion possibilities and seem to be built better than the early machines.
But, what about usability? Are today’s machines better able to help us get and stay organized? Or, have they evolved into units that offer more than we need, and cost too much? That’s a question that the marketplace will answer. If market share is any indicator, the Palm OS seems to have the best solution. They offer an elegant electronic organizer that does its job well. And the software developers have cooperated. Does that mean it’s better than a Windows CE machine? Absolutely not. I have an NEC Mobile Pro 770, and the ability to type comfortably on its expansive keyboard is great. I can’t do that on any palmtop. But the Mobile Pro does not sit in my pocket at all, and is useless for simple organizing chores. My old Psion was bulkier and heavier than my new Palm Vx, but it did its job perfectly. My older Sharp also served me well, but my Palm Vx is simply easier to use than both these units.
So, for me, progress means usability, not necessarily scads of new features. It seems that, for me, the two-machine approach is the best way. I use the Palm Vx for day-to-day organization, and the NEC for document creation and connectivity.
Speaking of connections, none of my early units had the ability to connect to anything except my desktop computer, and even that had its headaches. Hey, the Internet wasn’t a household word yet and modems were so slow that the only information you could send or receive was text-based, like the early CompuServe. Today’s Windows CE machines all come with email and Internet connection capabilities. I use the Mobile Pro for that purpose whenever I travel, and it works fine, although it’s a little slow for browsing, and the half VGA screen gets tiresome. Palm devices are capable of email and browsing, though the small screen makes it tough. There are modems available, as well as third party software that will get you connected. The ability to connect is essential today for many users, and will be much more important in the future. It seems that connecting to email and the Internet has, for most, become part of basic organizing and, as such, needs to be part of a complete PDA package. Palm, Inc. should take notice.
So where does all this take us? Obviously there is a huge market for these machines. And obviously it’s changing. The earliest units were electronic organizers, and all of today’s palmtops and, to a lesser degree, the handheld devices are, at heart, first and foremost, organizers. If you remove the organizing functions from these machines you are left with little more than an expensive version of a music-playing Game Boy. As basic organizers only, today’s units are no better than some of the early units. The basic functions are the same.
As palmtop/handheld computers with email and Internet connections, today’s units are light years ahead of the early units based on features, technology, and quality. And things will continue to change rapidly. Palm, Inc. is doing color; Microsoft is actually scaling down Windows CE somewhat, or at least making it more user friendly. Linux-based units are already being introduced. Inevitably, all of the PDA world will reconcile itself with the cellular phone world because wireless connectivity seems to be the wave of the near future.
Combining an effective organizer, a capable processor running complex applications, wireless connectivity, a color screen, expansion capabilities, huge amounts of RAM, decent battery life, and effective input methods, all in a lightweight, portable, and usable unit is certainly a tall order, and one that the early designers probably couldn’t imagine. If such a perfect machine ever gets manufactured, guess who’ll be strolling down the aisle with a box in one hand and money in the other.
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