A lot has changed since Palm introduced its PDA in 1996. PDAs are not simply about synchronizing information to a host PC. They have evolved into a mobile enterprise platform. With this evolution comes an abundance of choices for both end users and IT departments. What operating system do you choose? What features do you and your company need? How will these devices fit into the existing corporate infrastructure? What about developer support?
At the Core: PDA Platforms
For companies invested in Microsoft back-end servers, Microsoft's Pocket PC 2002 operating system is compelling. The OS uses a palm-sized version of the Windows 9x interface. Pocket PC 2002 includes a suite of familiar software (Pocket Word, Pocket Excel and Pocket Outlook), which makes working with documents from the full version of Microsoft Office a breeze. Enterprise support consists of File Explorer (letting users access files from Microsoft PCs and presumably Unix PCs running Samba), Internet Explorer, a terminal services client (to control a PC using Microsoft Terminal Services) and a VPN client (for secure network transactions using Microsoft's Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol, or PPTP). Network support includes 802.11b, Bluetooth and wireless data networks (CDPD, GSM/GPRS and CDMA/1XRTT). With these features, Pocket PC 2002 may be difficult to learn for some users, despite the familiar interface. Major enterprise solutions partners include Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, IBM Global Services and Rainier Technology.
Palm has been a player in the mobile enterprise market for some time, and Palm's developer network has grown to include heavyweights such as Computer Associates, IBM, Oracle, PeopleSoft, SAP and Sun Microsystems. This no doubt contributes to Palm's continued lead in enterprise market share, with 60 percent of companies standardizing on Palm as their mobile device platform, according to an April survey by IDC. With more than 13,000 commercial applications for the Palm OS, virtually any solution required can be obtained. Still, the Palm OS is starting to show its age. The slow Motorola DragonBall processors used by Palm have been pushed as far as possible, and Pocket PC now includes more integrated applications than are in the Palm OS 4. Market share for Palm has decreased, and unless we see major changes to the Palm platform it will continue to do so.
Palm released a new Palm OS in June that is seen as a major advancement to the platform. Noted features include more horsepower for Palm devices, with support for faster ARM processors, currently used by Pocket PC devices. Despite the change in processing architecture, programs that strictly adhere to proper coding for Palm OS 4 should run on Palm OS 5 using a built-in emulator. Performance for emulated programs should be equal to or exceed that of Palm OS 4.
Palm has addressed the increasing demand for data security by providing native support for 128-bit encryption using RSA's RC4 as well as 128-bit SSL encryption for data communication. Palm will also allow for access restrictions, including passwords, biometric verification and smartcards. Native support for 802.11b has been added to the existing wireless support. Multimedia enhancements include increasing the screen resolution to 320 by 320 and adding 16-bit audio.
Linux-based devices are harder to evaluate than devices based on Palm or Microsoft. Sharp dominates, with its Zaurus SL-5000, though there are other players in the Linux PDA market. Primarily, Linux devices use ARM processors, but there are exceptions, such as Empower Technologies' PowerPlay V. Many of the Linux devices lack maturity, a major problem for enterprise customers. but Linux's wealth of applications is appealing to enterprises, the questions linger: Which applications will successfully port to a PDA architecture? How many back-end applications--such as device management and PIM (personal information management) synchronization--will Linux PDAs support? Finally, the multiple distributions of Linux with different features make comparisons more difficult. Until proven enterprise application support exists for Linux PDAs, they will remain a poor choice for the corporate environment.
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