Almost from the inception of personal digital assistants and cell phones, there have been predictions that the two will converge into a single, easy to carry device. With the passage of time the call for convergence has grown louder and more persistent. Technology writers are touting its merits. Mobile users are demanding it. And hardware and software companies are providing products to make it happen.
Early products fell short in one or more significant ways, and the consumer often bypassed them in favor of separate cell phones and PDAs. But lately, products have emerged that offer a form factor and range of services that have found willing buyers. Such successes have emboldened the champions of convergence even more. Indeed, forecasters have pronounced the impending death of the traditional PDA. The argument is that since the cell phone is smaller, lighter, and easier to carry, and since the cell phone is gaining more and more handheld computer functions (the so-called “smart” phone), there is no longer much need for PDAs. The personal digital assistant is on its way to the digital dustbin.
But, to paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of the death of the PDA have been greatly exaggerated. Though the convergence trend is likely to continue, there are many areas in which a handheld computer is superior to a cell phone, and this is likely to remain the case for the foreseeable future. This article explores the factors that are driving convergence, reviews reasons why PDAs are likely to continue to occupy a significant place in the mobile electronics marketplace, and offers some predictions on how the PDA might evolve in the face of coming technical developments.
The case for convergence
So why is there pressure to put cell phone and PDA functions into a single device? The most important reason is that it is more convenient to carry a single device. When one is highly mobile, navigating airports, hotels, business sites, and rental car agencies, space comes at a premium, and weight always matters. Since advances in mobile electronics have made it practical to add more powerful computer functions to the smaller, lighter cell phone, why carry a PDA at all?
Indeed, several successful devices are now on the market. The Palm Treo is widely viewed as one of the best cell phone PDA hybrid devices on the market today. It sells well, and the 650 offered improvements over the 600. Though criticisms of this device are relatively rare, one of the more telling ones is that it is still “thick.” The Treo has an SD/Multimedia card slot that can give the device substantial storage capacity and move it closer to the functions of the traditional PDA.
The Microsoft Mobile operating system can also be found on successful hybrids such as the Motorola MPx220 Smartphone. This phone has a mini-SD slot that can accept a card with up to 512 MB of file storage. Such a capacity, though still more limited than that available in a Pocket PC, is a step in the right direction.
The Motorola MPx220 Smart Phone
Though most would agree that having a single, convenient device that handles both phone calls and PDA functions is compelling, the challenge is in the design trade-offs. As is widely acknowledged, a hybrid device tends to be too big as a cell phone, and too small as a PDA. Data entry is a problem on both devices—particularly on the smaller cell phone. Because of its size, a hybrid device has somewhat better data entry than a cell phone, but somewhat worse than a traditional PDA. But, there are technical developments that could effectively address this issue and fuel the convergence trend—namely, voice recognition.
Voice recognition has been available for some time, but it is limited in its capabilities and accuracy and cannot yet be relied upon as a sole source of data entry. IBM offers the ViaVoice program, which I've used. It's reasonably accurate, and offers an alternative method for data entry and command execution.
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