Developing applications
If you are going to be using handhelds for a specific purpose, chances are you will want some extra software.
This, along with the availability of any peripherals you need, will probably be the biggest influence in deciding what handheld platform to go for.
If you are looking for something new or unique, you may need to hire someone to develop for you. It's worth looking around on the Web though.
A quick search on Google suggests that the Palm dominates in available software. Based on number of hits, software for Pocket PC comes to about half as much as the Palm, with Zaurus software a little over a third of the Palm.
If you can't find what you need you'll have to either develop software in house, or contract some developers.
The availability of developers seems to mirror the numbers we found in software--almost twice as many Palm as Pocket PC/WinCE, and then half that again for Qtopia. Prices charged by developers appear to be similar regardless of platform.
Each OS has it's own advantages as far as development goes. Pocket PC/Win CE uses similar APIs to the desktop versions of Windows, so it's very easy for experienced Windows developers to move to the handheld arena.
MS eMbedded Visual Tools is a free download, and is very similar in interface to Visual Studio. The Pocket PC emulator will only work on NT/2000 though, so if you are developing under 98/ME you'll have to test live on your Pocket PC.
Similarly, Qtopia development tools are down loadable as free software, released under the GPL. Programmers experienced with the QT toolkit will be able to convert to Qtopia easily. QT is used by Linux's KDE desktop, and the QT environment is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux, so programs can be easily ported between all of these and the handheld environment.
The Palm developer's tool of choice is Code Warrior, which is not free, but if you are hiring outside developers this isn't an issue. There are free Palm development tools, notably PRC-Tools, for building applications in C and C++, which is supported by Palm.
The real advantage of developing for the Palm is speed. The applications are very light, so less coding time is needed to do reasonably complex tasks.
The February 2002 issue of ZDNet Australia's Technology & Business Magazine contains reviews of PDA products, including Editor's Choice Awards for the best products. For subscription information, visit Technology & Business.
