For me, and many others, PocketPC is simply the wrong choice, in every regard, for many reasons:
- It doesn't work with anything but Windows. That leaves out the growing Apple OSX, Linux, and FreeBSD userbase.
- It also doesn't use standard, known, documented synchronization protocols, nor are the tools to develop for it or interface with it, free.
- It does not use standard file or data record formats, such as iCal (no, not Apple's iCal, the actual iCalendar specification), or vCard, or CSV, or anything else that would make it easy to migrate to or from other devices and platforms to this device.
- Battery life, weight, size, and lack of solid applications are another handful of things missing from PocketPC devices.
Sure, in time, these devices could possibly equal or surpass what Palm developers have now, but Palm has 8 years ahead of PocketPC and hundreds of thousands of developers. Why? See #2 above for one major answer.Its not about the OS, its about what it does, and PocketPC, when compared to a recent PalmOS-based handheld device, doesn't even step up to the table.
PalmOS devices are quick, powerful, simple, and work with every single major platform out there, out of the box. PocketPC forces my choices down to the very slim and narrowing Microsoft product suite.
I'm also not in the habit of recycling my $400 device every 6 months, like these vendors try to encourage everyone to do. $400 devices are not "disposable" in my world.
But that's just
my opinion. Microsoft has a LOT of catching up to do.