Palm's Share of Market Larger than Expected

PDA Boy, the very fact that OEMs stopped producing WinCE machines proves the fact that Palm is better. Most major companies are switching sides and beginning to liscense the Palm OS. Palm is gaining market share because they are doing better. They are doing better because those who were supporting WinCE have switched sides. Your argument is circular logic...

Joe,
What the hell are you talking about? There have only been two companies (Philips and Everex) that have dropped out of the CE market, and neither of them has "switched" to the Palm OS.

And none of the current OEMs stopped production 4 months ago because they were ditching Microsoft, it's because they were eliminating inventory to make room for a new line of handhelds. I think you need stay on top of the PDA market a little better....have you even heard of the Pocket PC?

....circular logic? more like simple logic you damn nutball!

IBM dropped their WinCE device, too. They continue to produce their Palm-based handhelds.

http://www.allnetdevices.com/news/0003/000329ibm.htm" CLASS=NEWS TARGET=_NEW>http://www.allnetdevices.com/news/0003/000329ibm.htm

Ed, The IBM device doesn't count in this matter because it was a larger handheld with a keyboard, similar to a Psion system. The devices I'm referring to are Palm-sized handhelds such as the Casio E-100 or HP Jornada.

More than likely, the reason for CE disappearing from the market for three months is this...

"For the record, I've been told by an HP marketing rep that they have completely sold out of pre-release shipments, and that they have been "overwhelmed" with orders."

This is what marketing is supposed to do. Remove something from the public, come back later, announce a "pre-release" then claim there is such a demand you had better get your order in now, or you're S.O.L. That's how you spawn uncommon sales growth.

Reason 2 would be MS may have figured out they need to test releases before releasing to see if it actually works. I do like MS products, but CE (or the 'New and Improved' PocketPC) is still an over-bloated toy in a world of tools. I can wait 6 months or I can wait another year for the CE OS to be refined. Well, naah! I'm tired of waiting!

As for IBM, they do have a Palm knock-off. It's even listed in Palms' marketing packet for you marketing rep buffs. Hp figure they can cover both sidesof the net if they produce rival equipment. My guess is they are going to take a bath in both unless they continue to push the rapidly rising Japanese, French and German wireless markets.

All in all, MS just doesn't have the resources yet to compete in that arena. That's not saying they never will, but to arbitrarily say, "Wait another 6-8 months for Pocket PCs to start selling in quantity, and then we'll see what the numbers show.", is just nuts. No one wants to specd an extra 60 to 75 percent just because it has an MS OS on it. Most business people, or entrepreneurs, are much smarter than that. My question is, what do PocketPC really want their PDA to do?

Sandokan