Handheld computers: Who'll lead the market?

Handheld computers: Who'll lead the market?

Jonminofri Nazir, Contributor, Jakarta

Retailers of Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), both the
handheld and pocket Personal Computer (PC) versions, are
currently having a wild time. Why shouldn't they given that the
market for such handheld computers is growing rapidly.

Within the past year, more and more shops specializing in
selling these miniaturized computers have emerged in Jakarta's
malls. In malls like Ratu Plaza and the Ambassador Mall you can
even find more than one shop.

Of course one shouldn't compare this number with the dozens of
shops selling cellular phones in the same malls. But the profit
margin in selling PDAs is comparably much higher as it is almost
tenfold. While cellular phones are selling like hot cakes, the
number of PDAs sold in the country until today is estimated at
only about 1,000 units.

"But it's an upbeat trend," said Steven Samudera, manager of
Mobilecom, a PDA distributing company in Jakarta.

According to Steven's observation of the market, the demand
for PDAs and handheld computers is growing. Most customers use
them for office work, while some need them due to their high
mobility in data transfers, or use them purely as toys.

At Mobilecom's store in the Ambassador Mall one can find out
the profile of the customers. Executives, professionals and even
some foreign embassy staff were among them. Sometimes one can run
into celebrities.

"These are the highly mobile people who frequently make use of
PDAs," said Steven.

Today many companies provide their executives with PDAs
instead of notebooks as a wider range of data can be stored and
easily accessed.

Coca Cola Indonesia even provides its field researchers with
PDAs specially equipped with research software. So don't be
surprised when you see someone in a Coca Cola uniform pressing
the buttons of this gadget in his hand.

Many computer hobbyists also use PDAs. They often purchase
expensive branded bags to carry them in.

Who's the market leader today? Brand-wise it's rather
difficult to define, explained Steven, because there are three
major groups with different operating systems.

In simple terms, the operating system or the software that
runs all the applications in PDAs is like the Windows on desktop
computers. Without the Windows a computer cannot function
properly. Most desktop computers use the Windows operating
system, but actually there are other operating systems, such as
Linux which is becoming increasingly popular, or Macintosh. For
desktops, as we all know, the leader is Windows, which is
produced by Microsoft.

For PDAs, there are three Operating Systems (OS) on the
market. The first is Epoc, manufactured by Cymbian, which is also
used by cellular phones that function as PDAs. Famous brands,
like Nokia and Sony Ericsson, use this system. Many cellular
users are still not very aware of this operating system, because
they tend to rely on the conventional function of a cellular
phone rather than a PDA.

The second OS, which comes from Palm Corporation, is generally
referred to as OS Palm. Taking into account the various brands of
PDAs using this system, such as Sony, Samsung, Handspring, IBM,
Handera and several others, it can be said that OS Palm currently
dominates the market. This is only natural because it is the
pioneer in PDA operating systems.

However, in the near future, it may be overtaken by the
competitor's operating system: Windows CE from Microsoft. Their
product is popularly called Pocket PC. Some of the famous brands
that use Windows CE are Hewlett Packard (HP), Compaq, NEC,
Toshiba and Casio.

Why will Windows CE turn into the market leader? The basic
reasons are its practicality and compatibility.

PDAs are used by highly mobile people to process and to keep a
wide range of data, which comprises not only addresses, e-mails,
faxes and the like, but also agendas, schedules and valuable
business data such as sales presentations, company profiles,
results of surveys and researches etc. Normally these are stored
in desktop computers in Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint or
other database format, which are all popularly called Microsoft
Office data.

Microsoft Office data is naturally easier to access through an
operating system that uses the same Windows format. That's why
using a Pocket PC makes it more convenient to transfer data from
a PDA to the desktop computer or vice versa without changing the
format.

What will make Microsoft's Pocket PC more popular is the
latest software developed to control various household equipment,
such as refrigerators, televisions, air-conditioners, etc., via
computers. This means that household equipment can be controlled
from any distance with the assistance of the Internet or through
PDAs having the Windows operating system.

However, today's consumers in Indonesia are not as
sophisticated as the PDAs. They purchase PDAs based on the
recommendations of friends who are already using those based on
the Palm operating system.

Not to lose out in the competition race, other Operating
Systems have also developed new software that can bridge both
Palm and Microsoft's Windows CE so that both formats can be
compatible and easy to access on a PDA.

This is one of the reasons why Nokia Communicator is still
very popular, though it uses the Epoc Operating system, not
Windows CE. Likewise, the latest product by Sony Ericsson, T68i,
has also been well received as it is highly compatible and
capable of communicating data, including Multimedia Message
Service (MMS).

It seems that apart from the type of operating system that is
used by a PDA, the most important thing is that it should be
capable of combining various functions: data processing, data
communication and voice communication as well as incorporating
entertainment features.

This becomes more relevant because there is now a cellular
operator, IM3, who provides its users with the GPRS service that
can transmit and receive a huge amount of data at high speed.
Other operators are also preparing to offer similar services
within the year.

Once the demand for GPRS increases, the sales of PDAs will
certainly grow in no time. It is most likely this will occur this
year.