Peripherals
What about peripherals and other options? Here is an area where the Palm really adds to TCO. Virtually every model of Palm has been a different form factor. What this means, with respect to peripherals, is that with each new Palm release, you would need a completely new line of peripherals to connect to the new device, such as: keyboards, modems, cradles, jackets, etc. There could be a whole new cottage industry for making Palm device adaptors. With the new M500 series, I thought perhaps we would finally see that day where there would be an industry-standard expansion slot, but alas, it was not to be. Rather than simply adding a CompactFlash slot, Palm had to go and promote their proprietary expansion card slot.
I can't speak for every Pocket PC device on the market, but with respect to the iPAQ, the connection options are simple--either CompactFlash or PC Card--and as the products mature, Compaq has committed to keeping the form factor consistent. This makes interchanging peripherals between devices a snap and helps keep TCO in check.
Volume discounts
This is perhaps the final area where Pocket PCs have the potential to offer lower TCO. Many large organizations have negotiated volume pricing for their servers, desktops, and laptops. Often the pricing is a set percentage discount across product lines for a particular vendor. Since two of the leading manufacturers of Pocket PCs are industry leaders Hewlett-Packard and Compaq, an organization might easily extend a negotiated discount to PDAs. For enterprises with large contracts with either manufacturer, the savings earned by extending discounted pricing to Jornada or iPAQ might well be significant. (For those loyal to IBM, perhaps similar volume discounts may be available for WorkPads.)
Palm, on the other hand, doesn't offer any other products in the server or client computer space, so negotiating a volume discount as an addendum to a large contract is not possible. This isn't to say that one can't negotiate some sort of deal with Palm Computing, but that needs to be a separate effort from other contracts. Again, such additional contracts require time, effort, and administration and add a burden on TCO.
May I have the envelope, please?
By now, you're either nodding in agreement or you've already tuned out and figured I have just got an ax to grind against Palm. First of all, let me set the record straight: I do not have anything against Palm or Palm devices. I love my Palm V and its predecessors, and in certain situations, it is still the right tool for the job. But, for my organisation, the total cost of ownership for Pocket PC devices will be decidedly less than the cost of Palm-based PDAs, despite the fact that the list price of the Palm PDA is significantly cheaper. In our case, the additional planning that took into account software and peripheral needs ended up providing us with significant cost savings.
Ric Liang, MCP, is a technology architect for a leading international energy company.
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Although the logic described in your comparisons between Palm and WinCE is pretty good, I noticed two assumptions you made that, if wrong, could completely change the balance between the two devices... and is, in fact, the reason for the continued issue in the first place.
One assumption you made was that Microsoft would make their future CE systems backwards compatible with older systems. Although this would seem to make sense, in fact it hasn't happened with a number of CE apps and systems. Many people found that older SW wouldn't work with their newer CE machines, and older machines couldn't run software designed for the next OS. Assuming, therefore, that MS will make things backwards compatible out of sheer sensibility, may be too optomistic.
Secondly, you pointed out that Compaq has committed to 2 peripherals for its CE machines. You're assuming here that Compaq will always sell CE devices. A number of other manufacturers have abandoned the CE market due to poor sales or low profitability, and it isn't impossible for the same to happen, even to Compaq. And if the other manufacturers aren't committed to the same peripherals, you lose. You're also assuming that those particular peripherals will also be available forever. Owners of the Syquest EZdrive will tell you: There's no telling which peripherals will last.
Although your argument does still hold plenty of water... that bucket is still kinda flimsy-looking. I'd watch those rust spots carefully... they could still bite you.