No Windows Mobile SE Upgrades? No Big Deal

[Ed Hardy]

Although HP and Dell aren't planning to release Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition upgrades for current iPAQ and Axim models, Brighthand's Ed Hardy says it's really no big deal, thanks to several third-party software products.

Read more at http://www.brighthand.com/article/Wi..._Deal?site=PPC

[JackAubrey]

Ed,

I agree with your points about the economics of an upgrade: Coding, testing and distribution are definitely an issue. But you ignored a major player in this mess: Microsoft!

Our friends in Redmond continually make non-upward compatible changes to the Pocket PC OS and then download the upgrade problem to the hardware vendors.

MS could never get away which this shabby treatment in the desktop world. Businesses have made it clear that Windows changes must be upward compatible. Why is the Pocket PC different?

Dell and HP should not need to perform extensive testing to get an OS upgrade to market. Microsoft should be doing that work.

[qwertyu]

Personally, I wonder how much more money could have been made by allowing the upgrade on current products.

Only one new model has a VGA screen and why would someone pay $200 more than a 4150 costs just to get it ? Some will.

The same model offers 624mhz instead of the 4150's 400mhz speed but I've read many comments that the difference in actual speed is not significant and, again not worth spending $200 for.

The last major change between the new and old is the portrait / landscape change. This, as you say in the article is hardly worth $200 when one can pay $19.95 for it today. Although it seems as though somebody ought to be able to change without a soft reset (Repligo and other applications do it now).

Taken together, some people may make the case that all of these changes together are worth $200. Another group will want the new stuff, just because they're new. The rest and possibly the majority of people will keep what they currently have. These are the people that HP intend to overlook and my guess is that most of these people would be willing to pay $40-$50 for an upgrade.

Myself...I still have a 200mhz processor on my old 3835 and I'm undecided on the new ones.

[George Mitchell]

You know what would be nice? If someone made an upgrade for basic alarms to work. PPC is a joke. I can run terminal services but I can get an alarm to go off consistently.

[JackAubrey]

Originally posted by qwertyu
These are the people that HP intend to overlook and my guess is that most of these people would be willing to pay $40-$50 for an upgrade.

Companies like HP are not inspired to offer $50 upgrades. Upgrades are not retail sales items - and therefore - upgrades are handled by their customer support organization.

The cost of administering an upgrade program through HP customer support is likely very expensive. The cost is more in the $100 range per upgrade. Why? Support organizations are not generally considered development or profit centers - and hence do not recover their costs in the same way as development departments (who get tax credits and grants). HP's support group consists mainly of telephone support people (some off- shore). They are geared to consume revenue - not create it.

HP will offer upgrades only if they feel future new sales, to existing PDA customers, will be affected by not offering an upgrade. HP knows that the majority of their PDA customers are returning ones (on their second, third or higher device). Under these circumstances they will offer the upgrade and accept losing some money on each transaction.

[qwertyu]

Originally posted by JackAubrey
HP will offer upgrades only if they feel future new sales (to existing PDA customers) will be negatively affected by not offering an upgrade.

Agree 100% !!!

Once you fill the needs of the "gotta have the new stuff" group, the next group is going to look at $200 or so that they have to spend to better the equipment that most have today (2210, 4150, etc) and I, for one don't think the new sales will be what HP is looking for.

The last group are those that wonder why they should pay $650 for a 4700 when they can get an Axim for $350 (less VGA). Dell has their problems now with the X30 but they're working through them, something that remains TBD for HP.

[Daviddjr]

Originally posted by JackAubrey
Ed,

I agree with your points about the economics of an upgrade: Coding, testing and distribution are definitely an issue. But you ignored a major player in this mess: Microsoft!

Our friends in Redmond continually make non-upward compatible changes to the Pocket PC OS and then download the upgrade problem to the hardware vendors.

MS could never get away which this shabby treatment in the desktop world. Businesses have made it clear that Windows changes must be upward compatible. Why is the Pocket PC different?

Dell and HP should not need to perform extensive testing to get an OS upgrade to market. Microsoft should be doing that work.

You are so right. People don't realize that, as usual, the problems are due to Microsoft.

My contact at HP said that there are actually two different versions of Windows Mobile 2003 SE. A Full version and a Scaled down version. HP supposedly licensed the Full version for install on the new iPaqs with the intent to try it on the older ones too. Until they found out that the Full version was too Bloated and wouldn't fit without a LOT of work to strip it down. They looked into licensing the Scaled down version which would fit but MS was gonna make them pay for both if they put the Scaled down verison on any iPaqs.

So yet again Microsoft has ruined it for the rest of us.

[robrecht]

"About the only application landscape mode makes a noticeable improvement in is Pocket Internet Explorer. Landscape mode makes reading web sites designed for desktop computer screens more tolerable on a handheld's much smaller screen."

I think spread sheets and word processing with a folding keyboard are also advantages of having easy landscape mode.

[Heyo]

I'm just frustrated by the fact that I find none of the new units compelling in terms of hardware and software features; compelling enough to want to upgrade.

I find myself in a conundrum:

1) Why bother upgrading when the OS is trivially enhanced. Major flaws like non-working alarms still exist. MS to blame.
2) Why bother upgrading when the units themselves are IMO poorly designed in comparison to the previous generation and entirely lacklustre and unexciting. HP to blame.
3) Why bother upgrading when non-support for upgrading now pretty much confirms that these ho-hum new units won't be upgradeable to the new OS next year. MS & HP to blame.

Nope. I'm holding onto my 22xx this year and just taking the opportunity to upgrade my PC hardware instead.

[sofene]

I must say that I disagree with most of Ed's conclusions and connotations. HP does not need to recover the whole cost of the upgrade through the pricing. The cost is recovered through the boosted confidence of customers in HP which in turn results in increased market shares. I do believe that if the option was available most of the people now clamouring for the OS upgrade would chose to buy the new ipaqs especially those with large flash roms knowing that they could upgrade them to the next OS when it was made available. Now that confidence is shaken. They are no more sure that there would be any upgrades so why spend the money. Why buy an expensive unit that is not upgradeable when you can buy a cheaper one.

For me, those 3rd party apps are not attractive. They are ram based and expensive and are either poorly implemented or address limited applications. IMO things like portrait/landscape rendering should be left to the native OS.

One sore point is that HP decided for the consumer that a certain feature is not important. A lot of users feel insulted. Yes, vendor can decide what to offer. But don't tell the customer what needs and what he does not need. He usually prefers to make that decision himself. The only time you are allowed to make decisions for the consumer is when you are a monopoly. And right now I do not think HP is a monopoly in the pda market.

And the last point I want to make is that new pdas are coming with SE and pretty soon apps developers would lean towards SE. Most of these would not be backwards compatible so where would the present pdas be? In the rubbish heep of obsolescence. Don't get me wrong, you can't use a pda forever. You'll have to upgrade to a newwer machine sometime. But certainly it will be ridiculous to expect people to throw away their $600+ pda after barely 6 months of use and buy a new one just so they can get the new OS.