Microsoft May Pocket More of Palm's Market With Its New OS

By MARK A. KELLNER

Oct. 4, 2001 12 AM PT

SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

The Palm era might be over, and a company in Redmond, Wash., could be the source of its demise.

Microsoft Corp. today is expected to launch an improved operating system for hand-held computers, called Pocket PC 2002. The new operating system will ship on hand-held devices from Hewlett-Packard, Toshiba, Compaq, NEC and Casio.

Although Palm-based devices are renowned for convenient storage of addresses, phone numbers and to-do lists, making the devices into more-functional corporate tools can present a challenge.

You can add memory to the latest Palms--but not Visors--using stamp-size Secure Digital, or SD, memory cards, but then the slot is unavailable for any networking connections. You can plug a wireless module to a Handspring Visor’s Springboard slot, but then there’s no way to add SD memory. Wireless modems exist for several Palm models. Once they’re in place, though, you can’t clip on an expansion keyboard, limiting their use for remote communications.

And although Palm’s contact database, date book and task lists can exchange information with Microsoft’s Outlook program, it’s not the same as having a pocket-size version of Outlook.

In contrast, the Pocket PC was designed to be an extension of Microsoft’s Office applications. Cooperation between Outlook, Word, Excel and their hand-held doppelgangers is clean and efficient.

The Pocket PC hand-helds have evolved into a mobile business tool--you can have your wireless antenna and hook up a keyboard at the same time.

Such functionality will probably appeal to corporate users and, importantly, the technology managers who approve what can and can’t be attached to a company’s network.

But it should also attract many consumers who use the same applications at home as they do in the office, or who run a business from home, or who want to go to college with a tool that can easily access a campus network.

These new Pocket PC-based devices, beefed up with a slick user interface, a range of handwriting recognition options and new features just right for business users, could increase the gap between Palm’s PDA orientation--call it “hand-held casual”--and the button-down, corporate approach of the Pocket PC.

“The big news of this year is how Palm lost a five-year lead in the marketplace and is now battling Microsoft in the marketplace,” said Kenneth L. Dulaney, Gartner Dataquest vice president of mobile devices. “There could be over 20 different vendors of hardware for Pocket PC over the next six months.”

Gartner Dataquest principal analyst Todd Kort said that although Palm devices have a 54% market share today, versus about 24% for Pocket PCs, the numbers could flip in the next four years.

Palm and Palm-based PDA maker Handspring Inc. each maintain one key marketing advantage over Microsoft: lower-priced models for consumers. Whereas Palms and Handspring Visors can be had for less than $200, the new Microsoft-based hand-helds are not cheap--list prices range from $569 to $649.

But some analysts believe that the Pocket PC’s latest software has huge advantages. The new devices support two applications, Windows Terminal Services and virtual private networks that help move the hand-helds away from being glorified address books.

The new devices, when accompanied by a wireless antenna and software, can log on to a firm’s virtual private network, allowing users to exchange instant messages or retrieve information from a desktop computer or network server.

Windows Terminal Services offers a way to use information on desktop machines. It can also serve as a good tool for network administrators to diagnose and monitor pieces of their network.

Among the new wave of Pocket PC hand-helds are the Compaq iPaq H3860 and the Toshiba e570 Pocket PC. Both are sturdy units that are sure to appeal to business users.

The Toshiba and Compaq can support wireless networking, as well as Bluetooth personal area networks that let users print without a cable connection, or synchronize with a similarly equipped PC or mobile phone, again wirelessly.

The new Pocket PC 2002 software offers users several ways to get information into a device. Along with the traditional on-screen “keyboard,” which one taps with a stylus, and a character-recognition program very similar to Palm’s Graffiti, there is a new program, Transcriber, which can recognize block and cursive writing.

It’s not perfect. A new user will have to spend a fair amount of time getting acclimated to the way Transcriber accepts handwriting. But the effort can be worth it. When it works, it’s magical. It’s fast and surprisingly accurate.

All of the new Pocket PC 2002 models have high-quality color screens. Achieving such realism has its price, said Ben Waldman, the Microsoft vice president who shepherds the mobile devices business.

“The thing that costs most is the screen,” Waldman said. “One reason [Compaq’s] iPaq has been so successful is the screen. People place a premium on having a good screen, and that’s what you pay for in a device like this.”

About the only thing missing from the new round of Pocket PCs is the inclusion of a viewer for Microsoft’s popular PowerPoint presentation software. Although third parties offer some viewers, there’s nothing with the Microsoft logo available for Pocket PCs.

Compaq says it will offer a PowerPoint converter and VGA port so the iPaq can be used for presentations, but neither feature was available for this review.

Compaq iPaq H3860

Buyers have clamored for Compaq’s sleek and stylish hand-helds ever since they were introduced last year.

The new $649 iPaq H3860 is likely to prove no exception. Sporting 64 megabytes of RAM, the new hand-held has a slightly different layout from that of the H3600 series. The most visible change--albeit a cosmetic one--is the relocation of the built-in speaker to the top of the device, and the addition of a Secure Digital card slot for memory expansion.

Some models in the 3800 series will have Bluetooth networking built in; others can use the SD card slot.

Along with Compaq’s promised PowerPoint display converter, the H3860 is expected to offer a way to operate using voice commands, encrypt data for secure communications and have Java virtual machine software that will let developers put specialized applications on the device.

Although none of these features were available on the early production model reviewed, Compaq has done a good job of delivering on its promises.

Compaq has beefed up the battery capacity on the H3860, resulting in longer running times.

The thin-film transfer, or TFT, color display can show as many as 65,000 colors. I like the way things look on this screen, particularly graphics. Having color can make it easier to view information quickly and with better comprehension.

Best of all for those who might be upgrading from one iPaq range to another is the fact the H3800 series will use the same expansion packs--commonly referred to as sleds--for either PC Card or CompactFlash devices.

I was also taken with the synchronization cradle, which not only boasts a Universal Serial Bus connector but also one for the old serial ports, making it possible to hook up the H3860 to a wider range of existing PCs. It’s a small touch, but a nice one for users.

Using the H3860 was a familiar process. It looks and feels, in operation, just like its predecessors. But the unit is a bit quicker to respond, thanks to a faster processor.

The Compaq H3860 has enough power and expandability to meet a wide range of user needs, from humble PDA to full-fledged corporate tool. Although its price might be daunting to some users, I have the feeling that this model will have a fairly good life cycle in terms of usefulness and performance.

Toshiba e570 Pocket PC

This model, the first North American entry by Toshiba in the PDA market, is expected to sell for $569 and is also aimed at corporate buyers. Given the popularity of Toshiba’s laptop computers, it’s quite possible that this device will find a home away from the office as well.

The e570 (already on sale in Japan as the Genio-e) has only 32 MB of RAM but uses the same fast Intel StrongARM processor as the Compaq iPaq H3860.

As Toshiba’s first foray into the hand-held space, the e570 hews to the Pocket PC line of software, with a couple of innovations. The way Toshiba arranges the menus and categories of applications is clever and lets users easily find what’s running and what can be run and make selections quickly. The e570’s color display screen is a little less bright than the H3860’s display, but it is still sharp, clear and easy to read.

One feature found on the e570--and other new Pocket PCs--appears when you tap on a program name or a record and hold the stylus there for a moment. A series of red dots circles clockwise and options pop up. Do you want to switch to the program or do you want to stop it? If it’s a contact that’s highlighted and held, the options include copying or deleting the contact, which can also be done for a Pocket Word or Pocket Excel file on the device.

Such intuitive navigation makes sense to me, and although not unique to the Toshiba e570, it should help new users feel a bit more comfortable with this model.

Though lacking an expansion sled of the Compaq models, the e570 does have both a CompactFlash memory card slot and an SD card slot. The CompactFlash slot can hold an IBM Microdrive hard disk of as much as 1 gigabyte, or connectors for Ethernet networking, a telephone modem, or IEEE 802.11 wireless connectivity. The SD card slot, as noted before, can handle Bluetooth wireless or expand memory by as much as 128 MB.

The unit functions much like other Pocket PCs in replicating Word, Excel and Outlook in miniature. I was surprised by how easy it was to operate, almost entirely with one hand in some cases. Also impressive was the sound generated through the headphone jack. Add a micro hard disk drive loaded with MP3s, and you’ve got a hip little companion that can carry you through a cross-country flight.

If Anaheim-based Targus Inc. offers a version of the Stowaway keyboard for the Toshiba--which it already does for the iPaq and HP Jornada--then the Toshiba could function as a notebook replacement, at least for short business trips.

Mark A. Kellner is a freelance technology writer and hosts “MarkKellner on Computers” at https://www.adrenalineradio.com from 5 to 6 p.m. Thursdays. He can be reached at mark@kellner2000.com.

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The Skinny

Compaq iPaq H3860

https://www.compaq.com/ipaq

* Price: $649

* Memory: 64 MB of RAM

* Display: TFT, 65,000 colors

* Features: Secure Digital card slot, expansion packs, built-in Bluetooth wireless communications

* The good: Stunning display, wide range of expansion products available, solid feel

* The bad: Pricey

* Bottom line: Buttoned-down perfection in a Rodeo Drive package

Toshiba e570