The Pocket PC: Now arrivng at Grand Central Station!

The launch of the Pocket PC at New York’s Grand Central Station, was an appropriate location. Clearly the people rushing in and out were the target market for the Pocket PC. I was anxious to see if the Pocket PC launch would live up to this grand location.

When I walked in, the first thing I noticed was upbeat jazz music playing in the background. At it turned out, the music was being played using Microsoft Media Player on Casio’s new Cassiopeia E-115 Pocket PC. Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s new President and CEO, presided over the announcement of the Pocket PC. This shows how important the success of the Pocket PC is to Microsoft.

Microsoft led with an animated video presentation displayed on a Casio E-115 and projected onto large screens. It demonstrated the things you can do with a Pocket PC, showing also the different devices you’d need to buy to duplicate the Pocket PC’s capabilities. These included a phonograph, projector and a television. Microsoft went on to explain why they changed the look and feel, capabilities and name of the Palm-size PC. To summarize, they changed the look and feel to make it easier to see and use; they added capabilities to make it more powerful and useful; and the changed the name to reflect that it is more than a PDA, it’s a device that puts the power of a PC in your pocket.

The HP and Casio Pocket PCs were available in stores the same day as the Grand Central Station roll out. This was the first time this has happened in a long time. Also, I was pleasantly surprised to hear that Microsoft staff was present at some of the stores to answer questions and explain the Pocket PC to customers.

Finally, Microsoft partners demonstrated some real-world Pocket PC solutions. TD Waterhouse showed how you could use a Pocket PC to initiate stock trades via wireless connectivity. Further, TD Waterhouse announced that they would give away 5,000 Compaq iPAQ Pocket PCs to their customers for online trading. The TD Waterhouse system used an iPAQ Pocket PC equipped with an expansion sleeve that added a PC Card slot. The PC Card slot held a Wireless CDPD (Cellular Packet Digital Data) modem card, which allowed the iPAQ to connect to the Internet for online trading. The iPAQ is the only Pocket PC that can use PC Cards via its expansion sleeves, and this was a cool example of what you can accomplish with it. SAP demonstrated how an individual could use a Compaq iPAQ Pocket PC to access their personal information from their Web site via Pocket Internet Explorer.

Trade Show

After the initial announcement and presentation, Microsoft arranged for an intimate gathering with the hardware manufacturers and software developers. It was great to see the new Pocket PCs in real life right after the announcement. I was able to see the HP Jornada 545 used with a Novatel Wireless CDPD cradle to connect to the Internet (see Screen 1). Casio showed me the InfoMove system (see Screen 2), which provided navigation in the car using the Pocket PC. At Compaq’s booth I saw their iPAQ Pocket PC using an 802.11 wireless LAN connection for e-mail access. Then I moved on to see the latest applications that the software developers created for the Pocket PC.

Screen 1: Hewlett-Packard and Novatel Wireless teamed up tp show off a Jornada 545 version of Minstrel, the Novatel Wireless CDPD cradle that lets you connect to the Internet.

Screen 2: Casio was displaying its E-115 Pocket PC in a dash-mounted InfoMove system, which provided navigation in the car using the Pocket PC.