Technology I hate smartphones, should I get one anyways??

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cardsurgguy

cardsurgguy

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I don't like smartphones...

Whenever I've tried out a friend's of mine, there are several things that I don't like - keypad, smaller screen than a PDA, bulk for a regular phone (I don't want to have a huge thing like that as my regular phone)

I like PDA's better (for wireless access to the internet, I'd use bluetooth it with my cell phone, so that solves one benefit of the smartphone)

despite all of that, should I still get a smartphone?

I've heard they are the wave of the future and companies are decreasing their coverage for PDA products and services.
Is the PDA on its way out??

So what do you think? I'm in the market for one and will probably get one over the summer.
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The mobile computing market is diverging in such a way that PDAs are being replaced either by the smartphone category (which is already maturing rather quickly) or by UMPCs (which are out there, but they all still kinda suck and are very expensive).

It's a shame because I'm a fan of PDAs as well (I'm not interested in smartphones either) and it sucks seeing them die out. Dell discontinued their Axim line a little while back and at this point, the only major manufacturers left are Palm and HP (with some minor competition from Acer and Asus). If you wanted a PDA, right now the one I'd go for is the Palm TX, but if possible try to wait and see what Palm's new product will be in Q4 2007. As far as the smartphones go, I'd probably go for one of those XDAs (Orbit O2 kinda looks decent), because the Treo's display is way too small for me plus I'm not a fan of that dinky built-in keyboard. If I had to pick a UMPC for some reason, Sony's Vaio UX series is one of the best one out there, followed closely by OQO. Too bad UMPCs are only second-generation at this point, and the first generation devices were (more or less) a huge disappointment/failure. Hopefully they'll be more affordable in the future and some of the issues (e.g. input, battery life, target audience and purpose) will be hashed out soon.

"Internet tablets" are a third category but I view them as just a dumb idea.
 
crazy_cavalier said:
The mobile computing market is diverging in such a way that PDAs are being replaced either by the smartphone category (which is already maturing rather quickly) or by UMPCs (which are out there, but they all still kinda suck and are very expensive).

It's a shame because I'm a fan of PDAs as well (I'm not interested in smartphones either) and it sucks seeing them die out. Dell discontinued their Axim line a little while back and at this point, the only major manufacturers left are Palm and HP (with some minor competition from Acer and Asus). If you wanted a PDA, right now the one I'd go for is the Palm TX, but if possible try to wait and see what Palm's new product will be in Q4 2007. As far as the smartphones go, I'd probably go for one of those XDAs (Orbit O2 kinda looks decent), because the Treo's display is way too small for me plus I'm not a fan of that dinky built-in keyboard. If I had to pick a UMPC for some reason, Sony's Vaio UX series is one of the best one out there, followed closely by OQO. Too bad UMPCs are only second-generation at this point, and the first generation devices were (more or less) a huge disappointment/failure. Hopefully they'll be more affordable in the future and some of the issues (e.g. input, battery life, target audience and purpose) will be hashed out soon.

"Internet tablets" are a third category but I view them as just a dumb idea.
Click to expand...

Couple of questions-

What's a UMPC?

What is the 4th quarter 2007 product you eluded to coming out from Palm?




Also, anymore input on the original issue would be great.
 
UMPC are "ultra mobile PC"s. They are basically what PDA's should of been when they came out. Back then, PDA's could not run on a traditional windows platform so they created a new OS for PDA's --windows CE. UMPC are just like your laptop or desktop except it is the size of a 'supersized PDA'.

I hope this market develops because this is where I want to go!
 
crazy_cavalier said:
The mobile computing market is diverging in such a way that PDAs are being replaced either by the smartphone category (which is already maturing rather quickly) or by UMPCs (which are out there, but they all still kinda suck and are very expensive).

It's a shame because I'm a fan of PDAs as well (I'm not interested in smartphones either) and it sucks seeing them die out. Dell discontinued their Axim line a little while back and at this point, the only major manufacturers left are Palm and HP (with some minor competition from Acer and Asus). If you wanted a PDA, right now the one I'd go for is the Palm TX, but if possible try to wait and see what Palm's new product will be in Q4 2007. As far as the smartphones go, I'd probably go for one of those XDAs (Orbit O2 kinda looks decent), because the Treo's display is way too small for me plus I'm not a fan of that dinky built-in keyboard. If I had to pick a UMPC for some reason, Sony's Vaio UX series is one of the best one out there, followed closely by OQO. Too bad UMPCs are only second-generation at this point, and the first generation devices were (more or less) a huge disappointment/failure. Hopefully they'll be more affordable in the future and some of the issues (e.g. input, battery life, target audience and purpose) will be hashed out soon.

"Internet tablets" are a third category but I view them as just a dumb idea.
Click to expand...

Great post that summizes the situation. I <3 my x50v and I never liked the old smart phones. The Treo 700 is getting closer to what I want, but still not ideal.

-t
 
crazy_cavalier said:
The mobile computing market is diverging in such a way that PDAs are being replaced either by the smartphone category (which is already maturing rather quickly) or by UMPCs (which are out there, but they all still kinda suck and are very expensive).

It's a shame because I'm a fan of PDAs as well (I'm not interested in smartphones either) and it sucks seeing them die out. Dell discontinued their Axim line a little while back and at this point, the only major manufacturers left are Palm and HP (with some minor competition from Acer and Asus). If you wanted a PDA, right now the one I'd go for is the Palm TX, but if possible try to wait and see what Palm's new product will be in Q4 2007. As far as the smartphones go, I'd probably go for one of those XDAs (Orbit O2 kinda looks decent), because the Treo's display is way too small for me plus I'm not a fan of that dinky built-in keyboard. If I had to pick a UMPC for some reason, Sony's Vaio UX series is one of the best one out there, followed closely by OQO. Too bad UMPCs are only second-generation at this point, and the first generation devices were (more or less) a huge disappointment/failure. Hopefully they'll be more affordable in the future and some of the issues (e.g. input, battery life, target audience and purpose) will be hashed out soon.

"Internet tablets" are a third category but I view them as just a dumb idea.
Click to expand...
thanks for the input, crazy cav.

i think the treo sucks b/c the screen is too small, and you shouldnt have to use a keyboard -- thats the point of having a palm/touchscreen, so that you either write/point with the stylus OR use the keyboard. you shouldnt have to shuffle between both. to that end, if youre like me and you think its ricockulous to have a keyboard always there, check out the cingular 8525, which slides behind, kinda like an AIM sidekick.

that said, if i want a smartphone, it truly has to work like a phone. for me, that means a tactile numeric pad so that i can dial numbers without having to look down, ie while driving. does anyone know of a smartphone that has both a touchscreen and a readily accessible numeric keypad, but uses the Graffiti input system (or at least tucks the keyboard out of the immediate way)? ... i sure havent found any in a year.
 
Check out the Helio Ocean. The number pad slides down, the key pad slides out.

helio_ocean_zoom2.jpg


helio_ocean_zoom1.jpg
 
Therapist4Chnge said:
Nifty!

I've seen the ads for it.....does it have WM5 or palm? Any idea if there is limited functionality, or full-blown PDA functionality?

-t
Click to expand...


I believe the Helio runs on its own proprietary OS (if not Symbian OS). They're advertising it more for its communication and GPS abilities, so don't expect it to have PDA functionality (e.g. word processing, spreadsheets, PDF viewer, etc.).
 
Sprite said:
I believe the Helio runs on its own proprietary OS (if not Symbian OS). They're advertising it more for its communication and GPS abilities, so don't expect it to have PDA functionality (e.g. word processing, spreadsheets, PDF viewer, etc.).
Click to expand...
Yep, as far as I know, it does run a proprietary OS, which means it's basically useless for anything having to do with medicine.
 
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