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Microsoft tries again
on the palmtop
By Andy Walker, Cyberwalker
Media Syndicate
In an effort to overcome its underdog status on palm-top devices,
Microsoft has tuned up Windows CE, its operating system for
the hand-held computer market, and renamed it the Pocket PC.
The new operating system will begin appearing on devices from
Compaq, Hewlett Packard, Casio and Symbol Technologies on
April 19.
In this third iteration of the software, it seems that Microsoft
is starting to learn from its mistakes. Pocket PC moves away
from its history as a down-sized Windows operating system
by removing cascading windowing and replacing it with application
layering, so a music file will play while a word processing
document is open.
The ubiquitous Start button inherited from the desk top operating
system remains, but there has been a clear effort to slim
the operating system's complexity.
In fact, Microsoft is now counting "taps." That
refers to the number of times a user uses the stylus, a pen-shaped
stick to tap a hand-held device's screen to navigate through
menus. It's synonymous with the desk-top mouse click.
The stylus can also be used to enter text on a special text-recognition
area that appears on the screen or by tapping an on-screen
keyboard. A third option is to draw text anywhere on the device's
screen. It's interpreted as text characters on the fly. It
can be a fussy way of entering data but can be quite effective,
with a little bit of practice.
Microsoft is also working with third-party partners to develop
a plug-in keyboard for Pocket PC devices, something Palm has
done very effectively with its fold-away keyboard that is
not much bigger than the Palm devices themselves.
The Pocket PC is still more complicated than the Palm devices.
Finding information can require multiple taps, while navigation
to similar information on the Palm can be accessed more quickly.
But several navigation features have been designed to improve
access time.
Most notable is a short-cut bar that displays six icons of
the most recently used programs. Another addition is the ability
to "right" click on the device. In desk-top Windows
operating systems, a click of the button on the right side
of a mouse brings up a context sensitive menu of options.
Microsoft achieves this with a tap-and-hold feature on Pocket
PCs.
At start up, a user is presented with a "Today"
screen which displays the number of appointments, tasks and
messages to be attended to by the user. Ironically, HP and
Compaq have designed the interface of their devices to present
the user with nine most commonly used applications, a mimic
of the Palm computers.
Microsoft is leveraging its strength in desk-top applications
by including full-featured versions of Microsoft Word and
Excel, called Pocket Word and Pocket Excel.
Microsoft's presentation software Powerpoint and database
product Access are not available in this format.
What may amount to an enormous failing of this strategy is
the incompatibility of advanced Word and Excel files on the
platform. Pocket Word strips tables from Word documents. It
leaves the data intact, but separates it with commas instead
of using table columns and rows. Excel also strips advanced
formulas from incoming Excel files.
While simple documents will remain unmolested, there could
be a backlash from Microsoft's target user, the mobile professional.
Microsoft and its hardware partners say they are aiming the
Pocket PC at users who are willing to spend more than $400
US ($560 Canadian) on the devices. That puts the user who
is willing to pay up to $500 US ($750 Canadian) per device
-- the threshold at which most business expense accounts don't
require approval from a managerial level -- in Microsoft's
sights.
Microsoft seems to have done its homework on this front, but
has failed to assess the impact of the shortcomings.
"A couple weeks ago I was talking with Information Technology
executives from Canada and I asked them who was evaluating
(hand-held devices) and well over half of the hands went up
in the room," said Rogers Weed, director of marketing
for Microsoft's mobile device division.
The device is certainly built for the power user of hand-held
units. It supports Windows Media technologies for audio and
video playback. It also includes Microsoft Reader, software
designed to make electronic book reading on Pocket PCs easy,
thanks to an engine that provides access to reference material
at the tap of a stylus.
The Pocket PC also offers integrated functionality with Microsoft's
Outlook e-mail and time management suite and arguably does
it better than the PalmOS, which integrates with Outlook and
its competitors by including a third-party software package
with the high-end units.
Microsoft also allows for e-mail attachments, something the
Palm devices don't support. This Internet support extends
to a product called Pocket Explorer, a hand-held Web browser
that functions almost as effectively as its desk-top cousin,
Microsoft Internet Explorer.
While the browser doesn't support Java, a crucial component
of advanced Web page functionality, it does almost everything
else. It also attempts to format incoming Web pages to the
micro-sized screen. This works remarkably well, though to
be useful it requires a speedy connection to the Web, which
can be obtained through a modem or network connection via
add-on Compact Flash cards, which slot into the device.
This tethered approach to Internet connectivity may be impractical
but support of Internet applications positions the Pocket
PC for the next level of hand-held computing: wireless connectivity.
If this is deployed effectively, and better than on the PalmOS,
Microsoft could find itself with a palm-top contender that
could become the platform of choice for business, though the
battle is long from over.
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