Curt Sampson wrote:
> On Sun, 2 Nov 2003, Jonas Petersson wrote:
>>* GPRS will let you get rid of the 30 second wait if you consider that a
>>problem.
>>
>>* SMS will easily do the alert bit (and you can bypass the 160 char
>>limit by chaining if you insist).
>
> Keep in mind I was talking about the disadvantages of PDAs over phones,
> in that bit of my post.
>
> GPRS could be used on a PDA, but is not currently, as far as I know. It's
> certainly not widely available. I'm not sure of the current pricing.
>
> PDAs, except those rare few that are actually phones, do not and can not
> use SMS at all. As well, SMS about forty times more expensive than e-mail
> on phones here in Japan.
>
> As for the remaining issues: yes, as I said, PDAs have more power in
> many respects. (Not all: modern Japanese keitai have better screens and
> better cameras than most PDAs out there: certainly there's nothing in
> the PDA world in a similar price and weight class that can compare with
> a 505i.)
>
> Summary: it's technically possible to make PDAs that would not have the
> disadvantages they currently have in comparison to Japanese phones, but
> it's not being done, and I see no sign of any such PDAs appearing in the
> near future.
Again, generally I'm pretty much on your side in this, but I guess it
depends on your definition of a PDA. Even my ancient iPaq 3600 would fit
a PCMCIA card with for instance the Nokia PhoneCard (it comes in GPRS
flavour too). More modern PDAs, such as the Tungsten W, have this built-in.
True, they are hardly low-end (but neither is the 505i, right?) and
possibly somewhat bulkier than your average keitai, but some have been
around for many years (as have the Nokia 9000-series which boils down to
roughly the same specs).
Though I have no personal experience of it, I've been told that the
Blackberry has also played in a similar US niche for quite some time.
/ Jonas
--
Jonas Petersson | XMS Penvision | mailto:Jonas.Petersson@xms.se
Box 3294, Västgötegatan 13, S-600 03 Norrköping | http://www.xms.se/
Tel: +46 11 400 13 00 | Dir: +46 11 400 13 05 | Fax: +46 11 10 30 50
Received on Mon Nov 3 09:34:18 2003