SmartPhones, PDAs, and other Mobile Devices....

Back in 1999 when I started my first IT job with Bell Actimedia (now Yellow Pages Group), I purchased a Palm handheld PDA (personal digital assistant) device for approx $800. I loved that unit and used it for 8yrs before finally upgrading to a colour model (Palm Zire). The Palm OS was simple and intuitive and the desktop sync worked fairly well with little problems. I downloaded hundreds of 'freeware' apps and utilities for the Palm OS (sometimes I paid). I carried it with me everyday and the Palm calendar kept my life well organized. It also turned out to be a great purchase because the Bell execs and managers all used Palm PDAs and it was part of my job to support them.

At some point a few years ago before the smartphone explosion a colleague suggested it was inefficient to carry my PDA plus a cell phone, (Nokia was my preferred model back then) and said I should consider merging the too devices. I was comfortable with my devices the way they were but after some thought, this made sense to me.
My first venture into this new concept didn't go well, as I chose a refurbished (cheap) device from Tiger Direct. This phone was the WORST tech gadget I've ever owned. I can't remember the manufacture, but the phone was large, clunky, plastic and crappy. I t felt like a toy my kids would play with. It had a QWERTY keyboard and it ran Windows mobile 5.1. Needless to say, I quickly returned the product and wrote a scathing review on TD to warn other consumers...

I decided to stick with Palm because I was so used to the OS and started using the Palm Treo which wasn't too bad. The Palm Treo 680 was a successful merger of the PDA and a cell phone for my needs. I didn't have to port any of my data to a new platform and the learning curve was seamless. My only real issue was that it was kinda bulky and the battery had some weight to it. I like my smartphones sleek and light...
I used the 680 for awhile until eventually updating to the much smaller and lighter Palm Centro. The keyboard was a little small but it was a cool phone right up till I was given my first Blackberry at Loblaw. 
I was fortunate to find a nifty app to port my Memo's, calendar events and contacts over to Outlook which made my initial BlackBerry OS transition quite smooth. It was also really cool not having to manually sync my phone anymore whenever I updated my calendar or added new contacts.
With my new BB Curve, all my updates occurred OTA (over the air) which is very convenient. I've never looked back since...

Looking back now however, it's too bad Palm didn't survive the new mobile era as I really did enjoy they're platform for many years and I sincerely hope RIM doesn't end up with the same fate, but looking ahead it's truly amazing to see the advancements that mobile platforms have made. In fact, the term 'smartphone' barely applies anymore as these devices have evolved into mobile micro computers.
With QNX, Android, iOS and now Windows Phone 7, it will be interesting to see where the next generation of mobile computing takes us and who will survive...

RPM