E.P.
Call it a strategic pause in the PDA (personal digital assistant) market. Although Apple has released a new MessagePad and Motorola says it will start selling a communications-centered personal communicator this summer, major players like Compaq are still evaluating what users want in a PDA.
BYTE surveyed about 30 current or former users of the Tandy/Casio Zoomer, Apple MessagePads 100 and 110, or Sharp Electronics' ExpertPad. Through the survey and follow-up interviews, BYTE came up with a 10-point wish list for next-generation PDAs.
No tiny PC clones. More than half of those surveyed responded favorably to the notion of scaled-down versions of desktop applications. But in follow-up interviews, several users bristled at the notion of a flat-out,
scaled-down PC that would dilute the PDA's convenience and value. "No one is going to want to run WordPerfect [on a PDA]," says Greg Kearney, the owner of a MessagePad and a Zoomer and assistant systems administrator for the Casper Star-Tribune (Casper, WY).
Connect it to the desktop. Ken Wallich, user-interface group leader at Network Computing Devices (Mountain View, CA), switched from the Zoomer to the Apple MessagePad 110 because of the latter's ability to connect to his Mac.
Focus the applications. Ed Denhoff, facilities manager for a large financial organization, generally praises the Zoomer but questions the Tandy/Casio development team's encoding of documents (e.g., the U.S. Declaration of Independence) into ROM. Denhoff says that ROM space could serve better purposes, such as terminal emulation and fax capability.
Other respondents want applications with smart agents. Doug Miller, a principal of the management consulting and organizational development firm Reser Miller, says suc
h an agent would read his appointment schedule, note an upcoming sales call, log on to an on-line service, download information about that company, and alert him 15 minutes before the call.
Make them faster. "When you're sitting at a table, at a meeting, or [talking] on a telephone, you have to be able to [access data] right now," says Bill Laird, assistant vice president of American Systems Engineering.
Receive faxes, not just send them. The MessagePad 110 permits the sending of faxes natively; the Zoomer, via America Online. But there are problems inherent in receiving faxes because of the PDA's memory restrictions (i.e., faxes can be only one to two pages long) and remote nature. Faxes may require routing through a desktop system or a third-party store-and-forward service that knows how to reach you when you're on the road.
Tell us where we are. Several respondents said that they would purchase a GPS (global positioning system) on an add-on PCMCIA card today. They wouldn't have to pay
a high premium for a car with similar GPS technology.
Programming to go. Users want programming modules to help the occasional, as opposed to professional, developer write custom applications and extend the PDA platform.
Subscription services. In the survey, users were tepid in their desire for subscription services. Zoomer users, for example, can already get headlines via America Online. But many on-line services (e.g., AT&T's PersonaLink and Apple's e*World) won't be up and running until later this year. Kearney pictures a program that would download an electronic newspaper each morning into his PDA, so he could read it on the train and later transfer stock quotes to his desktop PC.
Vertical applications for specific businesses. Health care could be the greatest beneficiary of the PDA's advantages, according to Len Steinbach, who's vice president of technology for the National League of Nursing and president of the Microcomputer Managers Association. Unlike expensive terminals, PDAs ar
e portable.
Keep it slim. This may be the biggest challenge as vendors add functionality to PDAs. PDAs must fit easily into a pocket. "I know from my days on Wall Street," says computer consultant David M. Blumenstein, "that the last thing I wanted to do was stuff things into my pocket that were going to kill the design of the suit."
Users Say Pen Still Important
Pen-based PDAs have been maligned for their somewhat suspect handwriting recognition. But an informal survey conducted by BYTE shows that many users place a higher priority on PCMCIA, portability, and faxing than on accurate handwriting. The survey results suggest that users value pen-based input, but more for forms-based applications with ink capture than free-form handwriting recognition. (Results are in percentages.)
Very Somewhat Not
Important Important Important
Remote file transfer
to/from office PC
55 30 15
Auto-synchronization
with desktop PC files 41 48 11
Infrared link to desktop 22 56 22
Log on to office network 30 26 44
Send/receive E-mail, files 48 41 11
Send/receive faxes 67 26 7
Cellular voice services 33 30 37
Accurate handwriting recognition 63 26 11
Pen/stylus input 89 7 4
Ability to carry in pocket 85 15 0
Full-size keyboard add-on 7 45 48
Reduced keyboard for
two-finger typing 8 33 59
PCMCIA devices 85 4 11
Scaled-down desktop applications 56 33 11
Household management applications 33 37
30
Business-specific
(i.e., vertical) applications 19 48 33
Subscription services
(e.g., news headlines) 26 33 41
Priced under $500 48 45 7
Illustration: Graph: Users: PDAs Should Complement the Desktop
A recent survey conducted by BYTE indicates that users see PDAs as a complement, rather than as a replacement, for their desktop computers.
Users: Give Us Connected PDAs with PCMCIA
