Analysts: Pocket PC emerging as Palm challenger

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By Bob Brewin

(IDG) -- Say "thank you" to corporate users, Microsoft.

The software giant's Pocket PC has gained enough momentum since its introduction a year ago that analysts predict that it will seriously challenge the hold rival Palm Inc. and its partners have on the handheld market. And it's Microsoft Corp.'s enterprise users who are largely responsible.

Analysts still expect Palm to maintain its lead for the foreseeable future; there are about 11 million units in the hands of consumer and business users today. But according to Gartner Inc. in Stamford, Conn., the Pocket PC has made significant inroads in corporations, which buy them by the carload.

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"The Pocket PC, especially Compaq's iPaq, seems to be capturing the hearts and minds of business decision-makers," said Bob Egan, an analyst.

Enterprise users interviewed by Computerworld said the decision about which handheld to deploy depends on such factors as the application, the need to tie into back-end systems and the type of user.

Wyndham International Inc. has begun installation of a wireless check-in system based on the Palm OS and hardware. But Mark Hedley, the Dallas-based hotelier's senior vice president and chief technology officer, said he would have preferred the Pocket PC.

Wyndham's third-party developer, Micros-Fidelio in Naples, Fla., chose the Palm-based system prior to last year's introduction of the Pocket PC. In Hedley's view, that was unfortunate.

"I would rather have a Pocket PC," he said. "It's more functionally rich. The Windows CE operating system has more to offer today than the Palm, which I find very limiting."

Niraj Patel, CIO at the GMAC Commercial Mortgage division of General Motors Corp., plans to field about 2,000 Pocket PCs to automate inspection of the approximately 36,000 buildings on which the company holds mortgages. Patel said he chose the Pocket PC over the Palm to replace a paper-based inspection system -- with inspection forms running between 12 and 30 pages -- because in his view, the Pocket PC provides "a more robust platform with greater functionality than the Palm."

Patel said he also found it easy to hook the Pocket PC into the company's legacy back-office systems. "That's when you get the real value out of them," he said.

Palm Applause

Yet the Palm clearly has its supporters as well.

Ed Baer, CIO at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, said he chose Palm-powered handhelds for three newspaper delivery and circulation management applications he will finish fielding next month. Baer said it was the Palm's inherent simplicity that swayed him.

Baer has developed a delivery-route system for Palms that provides drivers with house-by-house and turn-by-turn driving directions. He opted for the Palm because his organization "wanted something that was easy to use, intuitive and fast," he said.

Jeff White, a biomedical engineer at Miami Children's Hospital, also praised the simplicity of the Palm. He said he selected the Palm to automate patient-tracking information in the hospital's cardiac unit because of its ease of programming. White said he developed the application himself on an emulator from the Palm Web site. "I knew nothing about Palm until I downloaded the emulator," he said, adding that medical personnel find the Palm interface easy to use.

Despite the early success of the Pocket PC, neither analysts nor users expect Microsoft to dominate the handheld market the way it does the desktop. Gartner expects Palm to still command 50% of the market in two years, while IDC in Framingham, Mass., predicts that the Pocket PC will gain 38% of the handheld market by 2004.

"We know we are at just the beginning of this battle. This is a 25-year game," said Gabriel Acosta-Lopez, senior director of platform development at Palm. "We are not in the business of providing people with a PC in their pocket. This is a whole new experience."

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Palm introduces new handheld
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March 5, 2001

Wireless services for your PDA compared
(PCWorld.com)
Palm debuts two slim, expandable handhelds
(Network World Fusion)
Palm losing grip on market share
(The Industry Standard)
Users will adopt wide range of handhelds
(IDG.net)
Toshiba eyes July launch for Pocket PC PDA
(IDG.net)
Compaq rolls out monochrome wireless iPaq handhelds
(IDG.net)
Microsoft pushes Windows for non-PC devices
(PCWorld.com)
Compaq to double memory in its iPaq pocket PC
(InfoWorld.com)

Palm Inc.
Compaq Computer Corp.
Microsoft Corp.

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