InformationWeek: The Business Value of Technology

While many IT managers may see personal digital assistants as cute little toys, others are migrating applications for their key travelers to PDAs, including sales-force automation tools, database access, Web portals, E-mail, and productivity applications.

The big issues for these early adopters include standardizing on a hardware platform, synchronizing with data, and developing apps. The Pocket PC provides a highly qualified platform. With hardware available from more than a half-dozen manufacturers, improved synchronization software and hardware, and strong development environments, the Pocket PC is poised to gain business and consumer market share quickly.

For consumers, the draws are relatively inexpensive devices, high-resolution color displays, MP3 audio capability, and access to books, magazines, and lots of games. Many of these same attributes can make the device attractive to businesses as well. Especially attractive is the integration with the Windows desktop, provided you're using Microsoft's applications.

While early advertising emphasizes MP3 music files, there's a great deal of information available in audible formats, including many books and magazines in Audible Player formats, and seminars and instructional tapes converted to the MP3 format that mobile workers will want.

It's relatively simple to create speech-to-text files that can be listened to while traveling. Microsoft's ClearText technology makes the Reader application usable. It's quite feasible to read a novel on the device with text clear and sharp enough that you won't have a headache when you're done.

Storage of up to 340 Mbytes, the Reader, Media Player, a pocket version of Internet Explorer, and optional applications that allow viewing graphics files and portable document files combine to give portable access to almost any data.

Connectivity using the Compact-Flash slot lets users connect to company networks or the Internet, using either a 56-Kbps modem or Ethernet. With 56-Kbps modems available for less than $100, it's not outrageously expensive, either. In addition, Infrared Data Association (IrDA) connectivity allows wireless connections to PCs, mobile phones, and other PDAs, including Palm devices, with the included PeaceMaker application.

Socket Communications Inc. will have a Bluetooth card in the next quarter that will allow short-range wireless connectivity without the line-of-sight issues of IrDA devices. The HP version of the Pocket PC, the Jornada 540, comes with a docking station that can connect to the user's PC by universal serial bus as well as a serial connection--a welcome addition.

The Microsoft ActiveSync application provides improved synchronization with Outlook, synchronization of files on the PC or servers, and easy downloading of applications to the Pocket PC. Third-party applications are already available to synchronize with other E-mail and productivity applications such as Lotus Notes and Novell GroupWise and enterprise resource planning applications.

Microsoft and other manufacturers such as Syware Inc. have released development environments for the Pocket PC that make it simple to develop Pocket PC versions of internal applications, and to allow access to SQL databases.

Microsoft's SQL Server 2000 Windows CE Edition is in beta. It's compatible with other editions of SQL Server, supports CE devices running Windows CE 2.11 or later, and provides essential relational database functionality in less than 1 Mbyte. Data can be synchronized over the Web using an HTTP connection through an Internet Information Server to a SQL Server database located behind a firewall or proxy server. Synchronization also can be performed over wired and wireless LANs and WANs.

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