Pocket PCs (Windows CE)

The Pocket PC is a combination of Windows CE and an added functionality, which is similar to that of Microsoft Office on full-blown desktop and laptop computers. Pocket PCs contain, among other applications, e-mail, a calendar, an Internet browser, Word, and Excel. The name confusion between Pocket PC and Windows CE really doesn’t matter, and Microsoft has been extremely successful in promoting the Pocket PC as the platform for future mobile devices. The most encouraging fact concerning sales is that the Pocket PC seems to be the platform of choice in the enterprise market when it comes to connecting devices to back-office systems. In the personal domain, that is, for people who want a PDA for personal use, the
competition from Palm is stiffer.

Pocket PCs will obtain a substantial share of the enterprise market due to the fact that the technology for building applications is based on the familiar Microsoft platform. The platform of the Pocket PC presents great benefits to companies that already use the Microsoft architecture, because this enables standardized connections from the device to the enterprise applications.

When compared to a Palm Pilot, Pocket PC devices are more powerful in terms of memory and power. The screen in the Pocket PC is generally very bright, and you can easily read the content even in bad light. The downside of bright screens is the power consumption—you usually need to recharge the battery after only one day of frequent usage. This problem becomes even more apparent when you connect by way of WLAN or GPRS (General Packet Radio Service), for example, which requires even more power, resulting in fewer hours of operation before recharging. Thus, the biggest hurdle the device manufacturers have to overcome is creating a device with substantially longer battery capacity without increasing its weight.