PDA - the keyboard that fits into pocket
Personal digital assistant, a handheld computer which can handle functions of a laptop.
By Ritwik Donde, TNN |
MUMBAI: When computing and communications converge in a compact device that fits in your pocket, exciting times are ahead. Email, as the standard of communication, changed the way communities worked. But laptops were large, heavy and inconvenient to carry around and desktops not portable at all. So was born the personal digital assistant (PDA), a handheld computer which could handle the basic functions of a laptop and could be carried in a pocket. The turn of the millennium has brought in the latest in the computing and communications revolution - the PDA phone. But in the last few years, the PDA has seen competition from smartphones.
What exactly is a smartphone and a PDA?
Wikipedia defines the smartphone as any electronic handheld device that integrates the functionality of a mobile phone, personal digital assistant (PDA) or other information appliances. A key feature of a smartphone is that additional native applications can be installed on the device.
It is difficult to define exactly what qualifies as a smartphone. Nearly all new mobile phones have some rudimentary PDA functionalities such as phonebooks, calendars, and task lists. Further, BREW and Java devices allow for the installation of additional applications but are still not considered smartphones. There are many BREW devices with PDA functionality, the ability to run third-party applications in native code and sporting displays as large as 240x320 pixels; yet they are not considered smartphones.
Changing face of the PDA
PDAs have changed enormously over the years, in physical appearance as well as the software applications they run. High resolution colour graphics have replaced monochrome screens. Battery life has gone up from a few hours to several days. Weight has dropped to just about 100 grams and they can now have up to 128Mb of memory in RAM and ROM. The pen-like touch screen stylus has revolutionised input technology making them virtual computers. On the applications front, we have entire office suites now available on these devices, not to mention seamless messaging, calendar and browsing applications. The mobile phone and the PDA have converged into a single handheld computing-cum-communication device. Says Motorola head-marketing Lloyd Mathias: “For the corporates of today, the smartphone presents a good option as it comes tagged with Push Mail, an application that allows you to download mails from your Outlook Express server in addition to other MS office applications such as powerpoint, word, etc. I have graduated from a handheld PDA to Motoming - a smartphone.”
Types of smart phones
Nokia, Motorola, Samsung and Sony Ericsson have some of the most successful smartphones available in the market. Nokia has the E-series and the N-series phones that could be classified as smartphones. Samsung has D700 and D710 models which come under this category. Motorola’s Motoming and the soon to be launched MotoQ classify as smartphones. Meanwhile, Sony Ericsson has the P-series and W-series that come under this category. As far as PDAs are concerned Blackberry, HP’s iPAQ, Fujitsu Siemens’s Loop, Dell’s Axim and the Palm Pilot are popular examples that classify as PDAs.
The smart one vs the original one
Recently, the smartphone has overshadowed the PDA in terms of market size. According to Gartner, smartphone shipments bolstered the market growing at 75.5% to reach 34.7 million units, more than four times the size of the PDA market. PDA shipments increased by 5.7%. The industry estimates that the Indian market for smartphones is nascent and targetted at a very tight segment. However, in future, things may look different. Says Mr Mathias, “Consumers are looking for convergence. So, what’s about to happen is that handheld mobile would have a convergence of features of a music phone, a PDA and the digital camera, thus making it a completely comprehensive single device.”
In the final analysis, our impression of what a gadget is depends on our idea of what is a mobile phone - the one with numeric keypad and telephony - or a PDA - one which runs programs, facilitates text input. What if we change our ideas of what a phone and PDA is all about? Maybe then the death of the PDAs would simply be the death of our meanings. Possibly, when the holy grail of handhelds comes out - a gadget that does everything so well that we can’t call it a smartphone, PDA, PDA phone, camera, music player, ultra mobile PC, or kitchen sink - then the only problem may be what to call this new hybrid? The Smart PDA perhaps?
What exactly is a smartphone and a PDA?
Wikipedia defines the smartphone as any electronic handheld device that integrates the functionality of a mobile phone, personal digital assistant (PDA) or other information appliances. A key feature of a smartphone is that additional native applications can be installed on the device.
It is difficult to define exactly what qualifies as a smartphone. Nearly all new mobile phones have some rudimentary PDA functionalities such as phonebooks, calendars, and task lists. Further, BREW and Java devices allow for the installation of additional applications but are still not considered smartphones. There are many BREW devices with PDA functionality, the ability to run third-party applications in native code and sporting displays as large as 240x320 pixels; yet they are not considered smartphones.
Changing face of the PDA
PDAs have changed enormously over the years, in physical appearance as well as the software applications they run. High resolution colour graphics have replaced monochrome screens. Battery life has gone up from a few hours to several days. Weight has dropped to just about 100 grams and they can now have up to 128Mb of memory in RAM and ROM. The pen-like touch screen stylus has revolutionised input technology making them virtual computers. On the applications front, we have entire office suites now available on these devices, not to mention seamless messaging, calendar and browsing applications. The mobile phone and the PDA have converged into a single handheld computing-cum-communication device. Says Motorola head-marketing Lloyd Mathias: “For the corporates of today, the smartphone presents a good option as it comes tagged with Push Mail, an application that allows you to download mails from your Outlook Express server in addition to other MS office applications such as powerpoint, word, etc. I have graduated from a handheld PDA to Motoming - a smartphone.”
Types of smart phones
Nokia, Motorola, Samsung and Sony Ericsson have some of the most successful smartphones available in the market. Nokia has the E-series and the N-series phones that could be classified as smartphones. Samsung has D700 and D710 models which come under this category. Motorola’s Motoming and the soon to be launched MotoQ classify as smartphones. Meanwhile, Sony Ericsson has the P-series and W-series that come under this category. As far as PDAs are concerned Blackberry, HP’s iPAQ, Fujitsu Siemens’s Loop, Dell’s Axim and the Palm Pilot are popular examples that classify as PDAs.
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The smart one vs the original one
Recently, the smartphone has overshadowed the PDA in terms of market size. According to Gartner, smartphone shipments bolstered the market growing at 75.5% to reach 34.7 million units, more than four times the size of the PDA market. PDA shipments increased by 5.7%. The industry estimates that the Indian market for smartphones is nascent and targetted at a very tight segment. However, in future, things may look different. Says Mr Mathias, “Consumers are looking for convergence. So, what’s about to happen is that handheld mobile would have a convergence of features of a music phone, a PDA and the digital camera, thus making it a completely comprehensive single device.”
In the final analysis, our impression of what a gadget is depends on our idea of what is a mobile phone - the one with numeric keypad and telephony - or a PDA - one which runs programs, facilitates text input. What if we change our ideas of what a phone and PDA is all about? Maybe then the death of the PDAs would simply be the death of our meanings. Possibly, when the holy grail of handhelds comes out - a gadget that does everything so well that we can’t call it a smartphone, PDA, PDA phone, camera, music player, ultra mobile PC, or kitchen sink - then the only problem may be what to call this new hybrid? The Smart PDA perhaps?
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