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Death of the PDA? 435

Posted by michael from the not-likely dept.
An anonymous reader writes "The Economist has an article proclaiming the death of the PDA. Smart phone sales are predicted to overtake PDA sales this year."
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Death of the PDA? More

Death of the PDA?

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  • Yeah, so? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Excen ( 686416 ) on Sunday October 19, 2003 @11:03PM (#7257940) Homepage Journal
    If the phone has all the properties of a PDA, isn't this a moot point?

    By the way. . .

    FIRST POST!!!!
    • My thoughts exactly.

      Smart phone sales are predicted to overtake PDA sales this year.

      If those phones have the capabilites that people are currently using PDAs for, then why not just ditch the PDA. Most people only use them for addresses, calendering and perhaps taking a few notes. Why not just keep it simple.

      Are these phones that have PDA abilities, or are phones becoming PDAs that just happen to have a phone attached?
      • The Nokia series 60 phones (nGage, 3650, 3600, 6600, etc) run the symbian OS and have basic PDA functonality as well as the ability to run third party software. They even have built in blue tooth so syncing to a desktop system is a snap. However, they cost a bit. If you dont want the built in digital camera they are not realy worth the price.

      • Re:Yeah, so? (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Mac Degger ( 576336 )
        True...and maybe a little graphical calculation on the side.

        But until I can read books and do matrix calculations on a phone with a decent sized screen (which is why the Treo 600 fails miserably for me...sob), I'm keeping to a seperate phone/PDA...my jacket pockets are big enough (especially seeing as my phone damn near fits in the lighter pocket of my jeans :)).

        In other words, what gets me is that all these companies are trying to give PDA functionality to a phone (which kyocera and samsung seem to be do

    • Re:Yeah, so? (Score:3, Insightful)

      by mesach ( 191869 )
      I agree,You can make a phone call on a palm handspring, does that mean cell phones are dead?

      Is the Game boy dead because the nGage came out?

      Just because a new product has the features of an older product and is used for pretty much the same purpose, does not mean that the other is "Dead"
      • palm handspring??

        You mean a palm tungsten or a handspring treo?

        And I don't think anyone was actually arguing that.
        • I think he's referring to the Handspring Visor Deluxe.

          There was a plug-in cartridge for it that turned it into a cell phone. I would have picked it up, but it was big, bulky, expensive, and tied to (at that point) Pacific Bell (in my area).

          -- Joe

    • Re:Yeah, so? (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Negativeions101 ( 706722 )
      I agree that this is going to happen inevitably, but I'm not sure it's a great thing for everyone. I'd love to see a smartphone with an open platform, maybe even running linux, someday. Hackers are writing a lot of cool software for PDAs.

      I doubt that we're going to get the same thing on phones, though. Mobile phone makers seem intent on keeping everything proprietary, and wireless companies are making money from charging content providers for access to their networks. I think history is going to repeat

    • Re:Yeah, so? (Score:5, Funny)

      by uptownguy ( 215934 ) <UptownGuyEmail@gmail.com> on Monday October 20, 2003 @12:02AM (#7258202)
      Gotta love Slashdot's incendiary headlines. "DEATH" of the PDA, indeed. But then again, headlines like these have been around as long as Slashdot has. Longer, even. Why, the following is a classic from Slashdot's vaults circa October 1993...

      Death of the Calculator?
      "The calculator market will never be a mass market," says Cindy Brady, an analyst at Echo Blue, a market research firm. Almost everyone who now wants a calculator, she says, now has one.

      In contrast, sales of "computers", high powered computing devices capable of doing things most calculators can do, are rising fast. While some industry leaders, such as Texas Instruments, believe they are positioned to eke out a niche market, others are proclaiming the death of the calculator...

      • Re:Yeah, so? (Score:3, Insightful)

        by jpatokal ( 96361 ) *
        Gotta love Slashdot's incendiary headlines. "DEATH" of the PDA, indeed.

        Well, in this particular case the Economist's own headline was "PDA, RIP". If anything, Slashdot added a ? at the end, meaning it's a debatable opinion, instead of just stating it as a fact.

        Cheers,
        -j.

    • Hardly (Score:3, Interesting)

      by uradu ( 10768 )
      PDA choice nowadays is a religion, just like OSs. Even with the same PDA OS you have your die-hard Sony, Palm or (much less so nowadays) Handspring devotees, attached to various features of the devices offered by a particular vendor. Once you integrate the phone and PDA your choices dwindle, at least for the forseable future. Especially in the fragmented US market I see a truly generic PDA phone less likely, because the vendor would have to create versions for at least GSM and CDMA, and for the latter sever

    • Re:Yeah, so? (Score:3, Interesting)

      by gvr ( 143813 )
      Phones are oldschool anyway and less geeky than a remote control. I use Xten's IP phone on my WiFi powered IPAQ 5455 to dial for free through open access points.

      I want a PDA that can transfer data using WiFi for high speed, BlueTooth for short range and GPRS (or similar) for great coverage. For voice, I will continue to use tiny phones that are carry-friendly. I will never buy a PDA/phone that requires me to a) bring it in a bag or b) hang it in my belt.

  • I don't think so... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 19, 2003 @11:04PM (#7257946)
    Palm Zire 21 [palm.com] - $99 USD

    Kyocera 7135 Smartphone [verizonwireless.com] - $499 USD.

    Until they can close this gap, PDAs aren't going to be dead. And a $400 difference is going to take more than 1 year.

    Propz to GNAA
    • more accurately...

      palm zire 21 (i know we all buy the absolute cheapest pda's) $99, plus say $199 for a reasonable mobile, equals $298 for nearly slumming it!

      versus $499 (retail)...

      now if your purchase is subsidized in any way, or if the convenience of not synching your cell and pda is an issue, $200 may not be a bad price differnetial. my bsuiness cell account runs about $250/month.

      • palm zire 21 (i know we all buy the absolute cheapest pda's) $99, plus say $199 for a reasonable mobile, equals $298 for nearly slumming it!

        Who pays $200 for a cellphone anymore? Even back in the day, the kinda high-end (for the time) analog phone I had was $150 or so...for a Motorola with alphanumeric memory, vibrating call alert, and a skinny NiMH battery that still managed to deliver 8-10 hours of standby time. There were a bunch of phones available at the time ('96 or '97) that were anywhere from

        • Re:costs? (Score:3, Insightful)

          by gl4ss ( 559668 )
          you do realise that customer lock in freebie phones have nothing to do with the _real_ price of the phone? the freebie aspect was/is there to get the customer in and then leech him on the plan. the phone is not FREE, you pay for it dearly(but not up front).

          gprs phones start from somewhere under 200$ new, average nokia costs 200$-300$ i guess(ngage being cheapest that runs symbian apps that are for series60, 3650 is around 350$ or so.). locked phones are illegal here so instead of luring the customers in wi
    • Ok, I'll close the gap:

      Handspring Treo 270 [t-mobile.com] $249.99 with rebate, $349.99 without

      T-Mobile Sidekick (Danger Hiptop) [t-mobile.com] $249.99 with rebate, $299.99 without

      RIM Blackberry 6230 [t-mobile.com] $199.99 with rebate, $299.99 without

      • Everybody is forgetting the main cost... AIRTIME!

        The cost of acquiring the beast is not that much. What costs is airtime. I have been looking at both a smart phone and a PDA. Conclusion is that a smart phone is not the device for me. Everybody may be going goo goo ga ga, but they are missing the point that smart phones tend to have very little RAM, tend to use the networks all the time, etc. A PDA can use 802.11x and can have oodles of RAM. And a smart phone will always have a small screen. Ok the
        • "Everybody is forgetting the main cost... AIRTIME!"

          Though your statement isn't wrong, it is a little misleading. Today the primary purpose of a PDA is for scheduling appointments and keeping contacts. Though the popularity of using a PDA for web browsing is on the rise, it's really not at a saturation point yet. Worse, the point of using your cell phone to get on the net is that 802.11 coverage isn't exactly ideal. So you get airtime charges (or just not use the net at all) when you're nowhere near an
    • Of course there's a big price difference - the smart phone has a colour screen, twice the RAM (and an SD slot), plays MP3 & video AND includes a full cellular phone, email, web and VPN connectivity.

      You can get a cheapo phone with basic organiser capabilities for half the price of the Zire, free on a plan, even with colour. Consider also that most people with a PDA will probably have a cellular phone too, and would see benefit in carrying one device rather than two.

      What you're looking for is a phone

    • So many people missed the point of the article. The point is this... In today's wired world, why buy a small personal computer (PDA) that cannot connect seamlessly to the network? Gadget freak that I am, I've held off PDA's because there is no reasonably priced PDA that has wireless (no, not bluetooth or WiFI) -- cell wireless -- capabilities built in that also integrates well with the phone.

      You want to be in the middle of a cornfield in Idaho and so long as you have cell service, you ought to have seampl

      • Re:I don't think so... (Score:3, Interesting)

        by weave ( 48069 )
        I just got close to what you want. My current phone is a Ericcson T610 with bluetooth. My laptop syncs all contact and appt book with it, both ways, seamlessly and once it's on the laptop, gets sent to my other desktops via the bluetooth interface again, but this time over the net via GPRS service. My cellphone can just stay in my bag, backpack, or pocket and any device can use it via Bluetooth. If I wanted to use a PDA with it, add a bluetooth CF card (although I can't vouch for contact/appt syncing.

        For

  • If they mean death as in, "just another step in the evolutionary chain," then I'd agree...

  • bleh (Score:3, Insightful)

    by black mariah ( 654971 ) on Sunday October 19, 2003 @11:06PM (#7257959)
    Why the hell would you want to do PDA type stuff on a PHONE that is the size of a peanut with a screen the size of a stamp?

    • Re:bleh (Score:2, Interesting)

      by octavian755 ( 588429 )
      exactly, there is no way anyone can do daily scheduling on a phone with little or no hassle; plus I don't remeber hearing that these phones can sync with your computer...but i could be wrong

      • FWIW I've synced phones quite painlessly with WinXP, Gentoo, and SuSE (which, btw, I still am convinced is the easiest operating system in the world for anyone to use).

    • The screens on the Nokia series 60 phones is 176x208x12bpp and larger then most Palm screens which run at 160x160x4bpp.
      • > Nokia series 60 phones is 176x208x12bpp [...] Palm screens which run at 160x160x4bpp.

        Hardly so anymore. All new Palm PDA releases except two (Zire 21 and Treo 600) are moving to 320x320x16 or 320x480x16 screens, which will probably be the standard sizes for a while. Phone will be playing catch-up for a while yet.
        • I like hoe you trimed the term "most" from my statment. Or are you going to claim that most Palm powered PDAs are not running at 160x160x4bpp? Of course you can get higher res and larger screens. The point is that these phones do not make half bad PDAs.
          • > Or are you going to claim that most Palm powered PDAs are not running at 160x160x4bpp?

            Yes, that's exactly what I'm claiming. Since we're talking about new phones here, let's also talk about new PDAs. Very few new PDAs are coming out with 160x160 screens. IOW phones of the same generation still seriously lag their PDA cousins in screen resolution, and that will be true for a while yet. With PDAs the trend is towards larger screens, wheras with phones the trend is towards smaller overall sizes, and the

    • Smart phones have bigger screens (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Namarrgon ( 105036 ) on Sunday October 19, 2003 @11:39PM (#7258126) Homepage
      The screensize on my SE P800 [www.sonyericsson] is most of the size of the phone (the phone keypad flips down for full access), and the resolution is better than most Palm devices. It's certainly good enough for most PDA things, and anything I do. Any larger, and it wouldn't fit in a pocket.

      If I want to do something that requires a bigger screen (like watch a movie and actually enjoy it), I use a 15" laptop. I'm sure there's room for devices inbetween - bag-size rather than pocket-size, but a decent resolution display can be very usable even on a pocket-sized device.

    • Re:bleh (Score:2, Insightful)

      by grozzie2 ( 698656 )
      A few months ago, i had one of my clients nattering about how he wants one of them new fancy phones that has everything built in. On our way back from lunch, we stopped at the phone store. I had him pick up the phone, and emulate a phone conversation (phone held up to ear). Now the next step of the exercise, look up an address in it's address book, while maintaining the conversation with the client.

      He still carries a phone in the left pocket, and a palm pilot in the right pocket, and fully understands

    • pretty much for the same reason you'd want to do PC type stuff (read documents, spreadsheets) on a PDA that is the size of a wallnut with a screen the size of a postcard.

    • Right! (Score:5, Insightful)

      by uradu ( 10768 ) on Monday October 20, 2003 @12:42AM (#7258364)
      I think convergence will eventually happen, but I wish it would look somewhat different and take advantage of some useful technologies. You still want a large screen to view lots of info, so convergence towards phone-size displays is bad. You also want a SEPARATE handset so you can read the screen and talk at the same time. How about moving the communications guts of the phone into the PDA and connecting a separate handset to it via Bluetooth? Perhaps make an oversized pen than also doubles as a handet. That would still make taking notes during a call pretty difficult, so maybe just use a regular old Bluetooth headset instead.
      • I agree with you one hundred per cent over the handset issue. However that leads me to the next problem and that is battery power. A modern phone can easily last a week if used very lightly and three days or so with moderate use. Bluetooth increases the drain significantly (of course only when the phone is used).

        However a PDA doesn't usually have much stamina. It last three days or so with light use, and like the phone - it is usually running in a standby mode rather than being comeletely off. If you star

    • Re:bleh (Score:2, Insightful)

      by snero3 ( 610114 )

      think about it for a second

      Most PDA's are used just for appointments. Normally these appointments only contain 1-4 words IE "see Doctor" or "meet friends at bar". As this is generally what they are used for why do I need to carry one more model device than I need to when my phone will do?

      I am a contract programmer and I flight from Sydney to Perth and back on a weekly basis (Equivalent of LA to New York) so the less stuff I have to carry, watch out for and remember at 5 AM the better

  • I had a PDA given to me and I found it quite useless. They are generally for business men and people with busy lives that need to keep track of all of their appointments, etc. I, for one, have no need for that. Now on the other hand computers and phones are of greater use to a broader population. I think that explains it.
  • Once we see the first "personal server" [intel.com] come out, there will be no need for the phones to be smart.

    What I'm not sure is how the interface to the personal server and the phones will shake out. Ideally, the phones could bluetooth to the server to retreive phone books, etc, but something tells me the phone makers may not want to go this route - though who knows...
    • Once we see the first cell-modem chip embedded into our heads, there will be no need to have any smart devices being wearable.

      Such chips should be implanted into our heads as early as possible (into newborns ideally) in order to train our brains to communicated with Internet "naturally" - means without any other intermeadiate devices.

      Also, imagine a Beowulf cluster of us... Wait a minute, would it be called "Matrix"?

    • unless of course, the trip to blockbuster is to dowload a movie to the hard disk on your cell phone via wi-fi, which charges your cell bill, which connects to your television... and plays your movie.

      perhaps the idea of a personal server is not for your average consumer.
  • The success of the Treo and Blackberry have shown that mobile devices which join together a number of useful gadgets are what the market is demanding. The price will drop as it always does and these will no longer just be toys used by business executives.

    The camera-phone was the biggest telecom hit of the past year. Although entry level phones do not yet have cameras standard we may be nearing that feature-set in the next year or so.

    Video games and phones are still a mixed bad. The N-Gage was released

    • Video games and phones are still a mixed bad.

      Actually, the reason the N-Gage isn't doing well is because it sucks. Read every review about it and everyone says to wait a revision or so. Java on cellphones has been a huge hit, and don't forget games on the PDA. Nonetheless, text-entry on the cellphone is clunky at best, and until we start seeing some newer style of input (there are good ones out there) we won't see the cellphone take over. Also, the screen is another big point -- the cell phone must b

  • Death of the PDA? Not quite. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ajuda ( 124386 ) on Sunday October 19, 2003 @11:09PM (#7257977)
    The article is really predicting the death of PDAs that aren't integrated with phones. This is quite different that the death of ALL PDAs.

    All the article is saying is that PDAs will include another feature. PDAs are evolving. Very few things stay the way their were originally intended. Did computers die when we switched from punch cards to keyboards? Not quite. They're still computers, they just aren't exactly what they used to be.

  • especially... (Score:5, Funny)

    by pizza_milkshake ( 580452 ) on Sunday October 19, 2003 @11:09PM (#7257978)
    especially the PDAs running *BSD. they are *really* dead
  • I have a LG-4400. It has all the features I need, calendar, phone book, etc.

    It works for me.

  • Well actully, I purchased one as a birthday present to my obessively organized Fiance and within 2 months its become a $300 MP3 player as she went back to paper and pencil for all her contact/scheduling.

    She is one of many that bought PDA's and then decided paper and pencil were king. So the Stylus isn't mighter than the pen.

  • Doesn't the phone turn into a PDA? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Jeff DeMaagd ( 2015 ) on Sunday October 19, 2003 @11:10PM (#7257987) Homepage Journal
    I don't see the point in a distinction. Is it a PDA with phone capabilities? Is it a phone with PDA capabilities? Either way, if this happens, I wouldn't consider it a "death" but an evolution in what technologies and packagings people decide fits their lifestyles the best.

    Just because a radio was integrated into a clock doesn't mean that radio died then, although maybe I wish it did.
    • I don't see the point in a distinction. Is it a PDA with phone capabilities? Is it a phone with PDA capabilities?

      There is a distinction, and it's mostly in the form factor & interface.

      Something that's the same rough size & proportions as a phone, and has a phone-style keypad/interface is a phone with a PDA (e.g. SE P800 [sonyericsson.com]). Something that's, say, wider & has a qwerty keyboard - or no keyboard/keypad (e.g. Treo 600 [handspring.com] is a PDA with phone. They both have similar capabilities, just different focus.



  • The headline will be "The Death of Smartphones"

    Why ?

    Because like the PDA, smartphones are not easy to use.

    They are clunky, and their application is limited in scope.

    Yes, it may become trendy for some to take pictures with their cellphones and then email (or MMS) the pictures to their friends and families.

    Count that as ONE application.

    Other than that, what else smartphone (and PDA) can do ?

    Not pretty much, except for the mobility factor that the POTS (Plain Old Telephone System) can't provide.

    I for
    • You miss the point of smartphones. It's not that they are gonna replace the paper and pencil or the PS2 or digital cameras. It's that it gives you basic functionality in those areas, all in one device, which you can have with you all the time.

      If I'm out one night with friends and we're walking around the city looking for something to do, it's easy enough to go online on a phone and find local spots and even reviews. Or during the train ride, I can take care of replying to emails for work, while listening t
    • Maybe you don't like them, but I do.

      Yes, it may become trendy for some to take pictures with their cellphones and then email (or MMS) the pictures to their friends and families.

      That's a camera phone, not a smartphone. Not comparable to PDAs.

      If I need to take pictures, I can use my digital cameras. If I need to do serious computing stuffs (not only number crunching) I can use my laptop. If I need to jot down something, there're pens and paper. If I need to play games, I have PS/2 / X BOX game systems.

  • "The PDA is dead," says David Levin, the boss of Symbian,

    the leading maker of smartphone software.

    Is it just me, or does this source seem biased? But having just applied a new screencover to my Palm m515 (free upgrade when I warrantied my 505), I think he's wrong. Does this guy mean the nGAGE which seems to be both a bad gaming platform and a bad phone (it's ergnomically bad for both -- you have to remove the battery to change the game, and you have to turn it sidewise to use as a phone). And not to b

  • I'm getting pretty sick of having so many electronic gadgets to tote around. Laptops are getting lighter and smaller, and combined with wireless they pretty much take up 90% of computing tasks and aren't that big of a deal to carry with you. Now imagine if you're already carrying a laptop and also feel like carrying a cellphone, pda, mp3 player and a digital camera etc. That is a pain. Making the cellphone and pda into one unit is a huge help. If they could cram the mp3 and camera that'd help too. Or ... i

  • Merge, not death (Score:3, Insightful)

    by axxackall ( 579006 ) on Sunday October 19, 2003 @11:12PM (#7257997) Homepage Journal
    That's not a death of PDA. That's a merge of two product lines - PDAs and cell phones. The functionality of PDA is not dying - it's being combined with functionality of the cell phone. In a same way we can pro-claim "the death of non-smart cell phones".

    Besides, I doubt that PDAs will merge ONLY with cell phones: PDA functionality is usefull and will be used virtually in all personal devices. And some of those devices will be far away from being called "a cell phone": watches, MP3 players, cameras.

    Also, I am sure PDA functionality will expand from wearable devices to... drivable one? I always wanted to have my Palm being built-in to my car dashboard instead of being lost anywahere in my car.

  • I'm still waiting. I want a cell phone that has all the features of a pda so that I don't have to crowd my pockets with another device. But I want a cell phone that runs linux so I can actually make use of it with my computers. Until they get a linux phone out with wireless and network connection, the ability to take periferals, one that plays nice with my windows and linux computers and works with my provider (and preferably has a camera), I'm not going to get one of those fancy phones.
  • I don't like to replace my Palm OS PDA every year or so. I do like to replace my cell phone as early as possible (read: when the contract expires). I always buy reasonably cheap phones (below $100). I would like to buy mid-range Palms ($200-300), but I want to buy them at a different time from my cell phone. More importantly, when I change cell phone providers, I don't want to change my PDA.

    This is an example of one of those trends that might not necessarily be driven by the consumer (unless you're cou
  • To be honest, the most useful PDAs seem to be used as anything but, as they are good for collecting or processing data "in the field", for such tasks as inventory and event tracking. I don't think smart phones will ever fill that particular role, and paper "day planners" and the like will continue to reign supreme when it comes to managing schedules and the like. To be completely honest, cell phones are inadequate when it comes to any sort of non-verbal input. Too bad.

  • This is really missing the point (Score:5, Interesting)

    by screwballicus ( 313964 ) on Sunday October 19, 2003 @11:34PM (#7258101)
    The laptops of today do all the things a desktop is supposed to do, but occupy less space.

    All proclaim the death of the desktop computer!

    The PDAs of today do all the things a laptop is supposed to do, but occupy less space.

    All proclaim the death of the laptop computer and, indirectly, the desktop computer!

    The phones of today do all the things a PDA is supposed to do, but occupy less space.

    All proclaim the death of the PDA computer and, indirectly, the laptop computer and, indirectly, the desktop computer!

    We've been told that sub-notebooks are about to replace the notebook and "desktop replacements" are about to replace the desktop for years now. It hasn't happened yet.

    Will smartphones replace PDAs?

    When smartphones, like the latest batch of Ipaqs or Toshibas, support bluetooth, wifi, multiple I/O capable expansion options (CFII+SDIO) and an extensive list of peripherals, sure.

    Maybe "laptop" and "desktop" and "PDA" describe nothing but a form factor. But that's probably the best argument there is for their mutual survival. There's no reason the PDA form factor with PDA size screen will just magically disappear leaving a gap between laptop and phone.

    • With a little help from Moore's Law, I think most personal computers will be replaced by something like oqo's "ultra-personal" computer [oqo.com]. It's like a PDA, but it runs regular Windows XP (and so presumably could support Linux). And once our input/output devices like keyboards and monitors support something like Rendezvous/Bluetooth, we can just dock our oqo brick with our workstation or take it with us.
  • Takes too long to input information into it. A big waste of time.

    Not until I can talk to it, or type on a full size keyboard (qwerty, dvorac, whatever) will I be happy with how the pdas are turning out. I think cell phones need to be smaller too.. =D Oh, and humans have to have an established colony on mars. And while you're at it cure HIV. And don't forget to clone humans with gills.
  • I think I'd like my PDA without cell-phone features thanks.

    I am probably in the minority, but I am never again getting a cell phone. I don't like getting phone calls in the first place, even when I'm at home. But I'll admit it's useful.

    Cell phones, on the other hand, let me be annoyed by other people wherever I go and as a bonus I get to annoy other people around me. They typically charge ridiculous per-minute billing even for local or incoming calls, unless you pay through the nose for a super-duper-flat
  • "The PDA is dead," says David Levin, the boss of Symbian, the leading maker of smartphone software.

    Well, I guess he's the one who'd know, right? Who better to tell everyone you're dead than your most serious competitor.

  • A smart-phone that doubles as a PDA, doesn't have to has smart as a PDA. It just has to be able to emulate a PDA, or rather be a terminal for the PDA software that's at the phone exchange. Now you don't even have to sync your info up, just keep all your data on some internet server. Granted the phone has to have some smarts, and do some functions on its own, but anything complicated you keep on the server side. Much safer from data loss as well. Granted you want to be in a good coverage area, but that

  • In other news... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Gldm ( 600518 ) on Sunday October 19, 2003 @11:58PM (#7258189)
    Cellphones will become extinct as PDAs with cellphone capabiltiy become common!
  • As noted elsewhere, most of the problems that the PDA has are also held by the SmartPhone. Namely they have a limited utility compared to a PC, and about half the things that they actually do, no-one will ever use.

    I agree that the personal server idea isn't all that great either.

    Using a cell phone display for anything other than text pager level information seems to me to be an exercise in futility. I suppose with a flip open display along the lines of the ngage, or some of the other phones it might work
  • This is only a "death" in as much as a phoenix dies and is reborn from its own ashes. The PDA isn't dying, it's evolving. Mind you, I'm a big nerd, but I see phone/PDA combos as a PDA that can act as a phone, not a phone that does PDA stuff, too. Yeah, eventually PDAs that don't have a cell phone will not be nearly as common as they are now, but they won't be "dead" for a long time.

    But we can hardly blame the Economist, after all, proclaiming the Death of Technology "foo" is a great way to increase page
  • Cell phones take too long to develop and get regulatory/network approvals. And fashionable cell phones are getting too small for many PDA applications.

    It's not that PDA's are dead, but that the disconnected PDA is dead (which is why all Palm's have a HotSync port). Eventually, every PDA will have wireless capability instead (wifi, bluetooth, cellular but maybe using the same account as ones cell phone, or some combination of the previous). People will buy PDA's with readable size displays to use to confi

  • Are PDAs merging with phones or are phones merging with PDAs?

    By the look of things, it seems as if you could proclaim that the traditional cell phone is on its last legs, and that in the next 5 or 10 years phones that provide nothing but voice and SMS capability will be few and far between. This does not mean that cellphones are dead as well as it does not mean that handheld computers are dead.

    It could be said - and perhaps much more accurately - that this current transition will only be the death knell o
  • The next big thing that wasn't--or was it?
    *Shudder*. This is a very annoying technique. Making an apparent statement, then immediately contradicting yourself in an effort to... something -- make people think they should be interested I guess. I just use it as a guide to identify something or someone worth ignoring. Saves time.
  • they wouldn't use the tower to make a call to a phone that is in the same room/shopping centre as me. Of course, if smart phones had direct phone to phone capabilities it would be a little harder to justify charging me an absurd amount per minute.
  • I just love it when ppl break out their crystal balls and start saying that something is going to "die".

    Why oh why does such drivel even get published!? Now, don't anwser that. Thats a whole other can of worms and we might as well try to stay on topic here.

    I own no less than 3 Palms and have keyboards for 2 of them. (I can plug any of them into the 2 keyboards but you get the idea.) The 2 IIIc's I have are getting a little long in the tooth but they still function pretty well. My 550c is a little mor
  • The problem with smartphones is that, well, they suck. They're always some sort of compromise. On one end of the spectrum you deal with a tiny screen with and crappy organizer features attached to a normal phone. On the other end you have an excellent PDA with a crappy phone (such as the Tungsten W). Even the Treo 270 doesn't really cut it as a great phone, when you compare it to the talk time that you get with a real phone. And a lot of people feel silly using the flip cover (I really don't care about that
  • I think the only thing thats going to die is the high prices of these devices. I still carry around an old Palm III that works perfectly well for looking things up when I don't have a laptop or other computer handy. Sometimes I don't WANT to have a phone with me, to hear it ring or feel it vibrate, I just want to have a database/notepad of some sort and I haven't seen any cell phones that do that function all that well without a magnifying glass to go with them.

    When my Palm III eventually dies I fully ex
  • Until those "smart phones" come with digestible user fees, usb ports through which they sync with my PC, don't have screens the size of postage stamps, have useable keyboards (I prefer graphiti) and don't cost 1000$CND, I'll be sticking to using my new palm thanks.
  • ... the death of the PDA running BSD, since most PDAs will soon be running Linux (except for the really expensive ones with short battery life, which will be running WinCE).
  • annual sales have stayed flat at around 11m units worldwide. This compares poorly with PCs, around 130m of which are sold every year, and mobile phones, with sales of around 460m units.

    There's a difference between a dead market and a stagnant market. It's like saying that paper notebooks are dead because Post-it-Notes sales far exceed them. Well for one, they both serve different purposes like smart phones and PDAs. Most people who buy cell phones these days do like the extra features, but I doubt fe

  • The PDA was a cool tech "toy" when it came out, and every "geek" wanted to have one. After enough of us techno-geeks were seen roaming around with them, the rest of the public started taking interest in them - wondering what they were missing out on.

    Now that most people have had a chance to look at one/use one, they've learned that they're not really as great as they sounded; They're only good if you have them handy to whip out and use when you need one.

    Almost all of my co-workers who bought Palms or Poc

  • "The PDA is dead" says... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by iamhassi ( 659463 ) on Monday October 20, 2003 @01:24AM (#7258489) Journal
    ""The PDA is dead," says David Levin, the boss of Symbian, the leading maker of smartphone software."

    LOL. Is this like Bill Gates declaring Linux dead? Actually no, it's the opposite since smartphone is the underdog. This is more like Linus Torvalds or Steve Jobs declaring Microsoft dead. Why is this newsworthy?

    • This is more like Linus Torvalds or Steve Jobs declaring Microsoft dead. Why is this newsworthy?

      Hey, why shouldn't Linus Torvalds and Steve Jobs declare Microsoft dead? Scott McNealy and Larry Ellison do it all the time!
  • Death? Isn't the murderer afraid that it may sue [slashdot.org] them?

    Incidentally, I killed mine a few months ago when I bumped into the corner of a kitchen counter. It bled to death shortly thereafter in my right pants pocket.

  • It's important to have perspective here. The Economist is based in London UK and has a decidedly UK/European perspective to it.

    My point is that mobiles have taken off spectacularly in Europe (80% penetration), in fact, other articles in the Economist show that household fixed line penetration is reversing: people are dumping fixed lines because they have mobiles.

    This means that from a US perspective (which slashdot is) with an expensive, non-standardised and low-penetration market (40%?) lacking the kind

  • The PDA is dead? Says who? (Score:3, Funny)

    by Zakabog ( 603757 ) <.moc.guamj. .ta. .nhoj.> on Monday October 20, 2003 @02:37AM (#7258682)
    "The PDA is dead," says David Levin, the boss of Symbian, the leading maker of smartphone software.

    In other news, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer came out and announced that Linux is dead.

  • Missing the point (Score:3, Insightful)

    by SuchaGoombah ( 717455 ) on Monday October 20, 2003 @06:04AM (#7259186)
    I think the whole PDA vs. phone argument is missing the point. Just like there was the old 'battle for the desktop', there will now be a new 'battle for the pocket' or purse or whatever. The point is that the human-wearable technologies are converging to a new standard configuration. This includes telephony, traditional PDA functions (calendar, task lists, address books, etc.), music and gaming in a portable, wearable, wireless package.

  • Too small ... too big (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Midnight Thunder ( 17205 ) on Monday October 20, 2003 @08:35AM (#7259835) Homepage Journal
    Having friends who have these sort of devices and also seeing the Handspring Treo, I feel that they are usually too big as a phone or too small as a PDA. I don't doubt that one day a PDA-Phone will come out at the manages to solve the size issue correctly, but I am yet to see something that does.

  • death? what about convergence? or metamorphosis? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by *weasel ( 174362 ) on Monday October 20, 2003 @08:40AM (#7259866)

    the product isn't going to -die-. this is how convergence devices are -born-.

    PDA market growth is just going to come in the form of convergence devices more and more. some consumers will see it as new phone tech on their next PDA, most will see it as new PDA tech on their next phone. but neither product will 'die'. dedicated PDAs will simply be relegated to markets where having phone capability isn't worth the cost.

    in the same reactionary vein one could argue that mp3 players are going to 'die' because of the proliferation of that core functionality showing up in PDAs and cellphones. (without near killer-app sized storage though).

    i think the obvious explanation is consumers are demanding a single 'thing' that is their interface to mobile digital information. be it 3G phone, PIM, mp3, email, or mobile data storage. then there's society: having a cellphone is not 'geeky', nor is having a cellphone with PIM functionality.

    but having a cellphone + mp3 player + PDA certainly still is.

    and practicality: having to manage the batteries on 3+ digital devices is a headache. particularly when you are generally using only one or the other.

    my ideal convergence device:
    embedded Linux-based OS (for custom programming)
    full bandwidth 3G phone (w/ 1m CCD, 24fps video capability)
    CF type2 slot
    built-in WiFi (802.11b is fine)
    short range FM transmitter (for car usage without a dongle)
    built in HD ~6gB (preferrably magneto-SRAM)
    usb2.0/firewire
    OSS PIM
    mp3 audio software
    mp4/divx video software
    tabletPC-style graffiti interface, with automatic translation for text-boxes would be good too.
    no more hunt and stab with the stylus for url input.

    no SD, no MemoryStick -- no DRM at all thank-you-very-much.
    battery: li-ion, rechargable via usb/firewire/dc adapter. ~10 hrs running time.
    size: about 4"x2.5".

    attachable secondary battery, camelback style, for long trips/flights would be great too.

    right now one pays:
    ~$275 for the mp3 player and storage
    ~$150 for basic PDA
    ~$175 for a capable 3G phone

    would i pay $600 for all of this rolled into one? most certainly. hell i already spent $200 on the pda and $140 on a nex2e and 512mb CF card. if i get a decent cameraphone i'm out another $150 at least. then there was another $50 for the wifi adapter for the pda.

    to be able to have all that functionality in one widget is worth at least $150 by itself. particularly if it has respectable battery life.

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