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Bob Russell · 02-27-2005, 10:19 AM

According to a very nice and thoughtful article at Brighthand article, sales have fallen off because the killer PDA app is PIM apps. The idea is that the masses of people that wanted a PDA for that purpose are pretty much happy with their devices, so the market is falling off. What is needed is another killer app to create sales.

Ed Hardy tells us that he believes wireless e-mail is just that new killer app. I agree. It's definitely a killer app, but... I'm not so sure that it's going to help PDA sales very much. Unless Palm and PPC get ahead of the curve for both the app and the service contracts that support it, I just see it as another reason for the portable pseudo-PDA devices to leapfrog PDAs. For example smartphones and RIM devices which are already exploding in sales.

At my place of work it's an amazing transformation that has taken place. From a few trial RIM devices, it has grown into a cultural thing. Management as well as staff that needs to be in touch all make use of those devices. And I think all they do is use it for their email and calendar. But it's synched with Lotus Notes, and it pushes email with a vibrate notification, and it is now also a phone.

People have adopted it with a gusto I never would have expected. At every meeting I'm at, you hear those things vibrating and people are sending emails back and forth, and business gets done faster. Jokes and funny observations even go flying around the conference room sometimes at long boring meetings!

So yes, I agree wireless email is the next killer app. But no, unfortunately I don't think it's going to do much to help PDA sales. PDAs are too far behind on the technology, especially in terms of the wireless service providers behind it.

02-27-2005, 10:19 AM	#1
Bob Russell Recovering Gadget Addict Posts: 5,381 Karma: 676161 Join Date: May 2004 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Device: iPad	The Next Killer PDA App? According to a very nice and thoughtful article at Brighthand article, sales have fallen off because the killer PDA app is PIM apps. The idea is that the masses of people that wanted a PDA for that purpose are pretty much happy with their devices, so the market is falling off. What is needed is another killer app to create sales. Ed Hardy tells us that he believes wireless e-mail is just that new killer app. I agree. It's definitely a killer app, but... I'm not so sure that it's going to help PDA sales very much. Unless Palm and PPC get ahead of the curve for both the app and the service contracts that support it, I just see it as another reason for the portable pseudo-PDA devices to leapfrog PDAs. For example smartphones and RIM devices which are already exploding in sales. At my place of work it's an amazing transformation that has taken place. From a few trial RIM devices, it has grown into a cultural thing. Management as well as staff that needs to be in touch all make use of those devices. And I think all they do is use it for their email and calendar. But it's synched with Lotus Notes, and it pushes email with a vibrate notification, and it is now also a phone. People have adopted it with a gusto I never would have expected. At every meeting I'm at, you hear those things vibrating and people are sending emails back and forth, and business gets done faster. Jokes and funny observations even go flying around the conference room sometimes at long boring meetings! So yes, I agree wireless email is the next killer app. But no, unfortunately I don't think it's going to do much to help PDA sales. PDAs are too far behind on the technology, especially in terms of the wireless service providers behind it.