View: Are those white boxes I smell? By: Jørgen Sundgot, Friday 15th November 2002, 12:19 GMT
Pocket PCs here, Pocket PCs there, Pocket PCs everywhere! Jørgen Sundgot comments on the current evolution within the Pocket PC market - and why he both likes and dislikes it.
I hate to say this, but in terms of sheer diversity, the handheld market was a more interesting place a year ago. We had Linux contenders fighting to survive, we had Pocket PC 2002 being all fresh and new, promises of Palm OS 5 and even the Nokia 9200 series was hot news. Today, the outlook is a bit more boring - particularly in the world of Pocket PCs, and the term 'white box' has been lurking in the back of my head for the past month or so.
As most of you will know, a 'white box' refers to a PC that has been assembled, purchased and resold by small outfits that range in size from single-owner or a family-owned shops to larger, regional PC sellers. It's a "me too" kind of concept, where variations over a theme is the keyword - and what they all have in common is certain standard parts and the operating system; Windows.
Witnessing the development in the Pocket PC sector lately gives me the same kind of "me too" feel - as manufacturers are gearing up to bring out a slew of devices with only minimal differences in terms of operating system, hardware and price. Don't get me wrong, I think it's great news for those who want low-cost Pocket PCs, but I can't for the life of me imagine what good will come of this in such a specialized market.
You see, after squeezing prices down to the $300 USD mark a manufacturer won't make much from selling a Pocket PC - unless they sell them by the droves. But that concept is again challenged by so many competitors heading into this segment that it becomes impossible to achieve large volumes due to the small size of the handheld market. So, why the heck are they doing it?
From what I can tell, there are only three possible answers to that question; one is drugs, the second is added value, and the third is Microsoft. What does drugs have to do with this, you might wonder? Well, as unlikely as it seems, manufacturers could be thinking that people who wouldn't ordinarily buy laptops might buy a handheld instead - and find out that they need to upgrade to a laptop since a handheld's specialized feature set might not fulfill all their needs. As for added value, it could merely be they're making Pocket PCs to bundle these with stationary solutions to give their offering the "little extra" - and then there's Microsoft.
It could also be, that the giant in Redmond has managed to persuade manufacturers that handhelds are 'the next wave' within computing, and that we're now witnessing what the PC platform went through at one point: the brand war. A number of manufacturers will compete on more or less equal terms, and try to outdo each other in a variety of ways - most likely diversifying themselves in terms of hardware specifications and price; variations over a theme.
This is still a good thing, since it would inevitably lead to a price war that would benefit customers - but from the perspective of diversity, it's not as good. The reason is that when such situations arise, few manufacturers dare think new and customers get stuck with "you can have it any color you want, as long as it's black". Or in this case, "you can have any Pocket PC you want, as long as it's got Intel inside, 64 MB RAM, a 16-bit TFT with a 240 x 320 pixel resolution and one or two expansion slots of your choice".
Think about it. How often do big manufacturers step up to the plate and actually try to alter the well-proven formula of the PC? Microsoft's Tablet PC concept is the latest attempt, and I have yet to see analyst ravings concerning its bright future. I for one hope ths Pocket PC platform doesn't share this fate; give me more devices like the bsquare Maui that break with traditional (if that term can be applied in such a fresh and rapidly changing sector) ways and let innovation flourish - that way it gets more exciting for us all.
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