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.