The Handheld PC: More Than a PDA

Handheld PC (HPC) products running Microsoft's Windows CE have begun trickling into the market. While several industry analysts have questioned the usefulness or price tag of these, there are some unique features that make them right choice in many circumstances. This brief provides an overview of the HPC within the context of mobile computing.

Core Competencies of the PDA

The personal digital assistant (PDA) is a fairly well established market, with Casio, Sharp, Psion and Hewlett-Packard among the leading vendors. The minimal features of a PDA are

  • Weight of less than 1 pound
  • Text-only monochrome display
  • Calendar, to-do list, address book software

Products with only these features are appropriate as replacements for paper-based organizers. More computer-savvy individuals require additional features such as

  • Productivity software, such as a word processor, spreadsheet or database
  • Easy synchronization of data and files with a PC
  • Access to e-mail and/or on-line services

The top PDA products provide all of this, although often in proprietary fashion for eithor hardware or software or both. The coverage and capabilities of various features varies widely as well. For example, a particular product may have access to Compuserve and cc:Mail, while another connects to Microsoft Mail.

HPC Added Value

HPC products have significant capabilities beyond PDAs that may be extremely important in certain scenarios. Among these are

Virtually no training required for Windows 95 literate users

The Windows CE environment looks and feels like a pared-down Windows 95 with some additional subtle variations. Similary, the Pocket Word and Pocket Excel applications behave like junior versions of the Office 95 products. There is even a version of Solitaire that plays very nicely.

HPCs use the combination of a stylus with a touch screen, which actually is easier to use than a mouse, to support pointing and clicking in the GUI environment. (It must be admitted, though, that the improvement in pointing cannot make up for the deficiencies in keyboards. Anyone looking to do a lot of data entry should abandon the PDA/HPC realm altogether and go straight for a notebook PC.) If you drop a HPC in someone's lap, they can be productive in minutes.

Advanced communications based on TCP/IP

All communication, whether direct network or remote dial-up, is based on TCP/IP. Windows CE uses Remote Access Services (RAS) to provide PPP over PC Card modems. Again, this software looks and feels like a cousin to Windows 95 or NT 4.0. Microsoft provides InBox support for Internet mail (POP3 and SMTP) and a Pocket Internet Explorer browser. Overall, this blows the lid off of the proprietary and uneven implementations of the various PDAs. If you must communicate, the HPC is your best choice.

Easy software development using basic Internet client/server technology

PDAs with proprietary operating systems require new development tools. Windows CE applications, which are based on a small subset of Win32 (with some additions) can be written with the same Visual C++ tool as regular Win32 programs (although the required add-ins are still in beta). However, the included browser provides the opportunity to skip native development for many types of applications, especially within an organization. Using Internet technology, applications can be deployed using HTML front ends with a variety of back ends (e.g. CGI, NSAPI, ISAPI). Those used to leveraging Java, ActiveX, JavaScript or VBScript will be disappointed to learn that Pocket Internet Explorer does not support these technologies. Developers should also heed the smaller screen dimensions.

Whither Intel?

While Windows CE is based on omnipresent but proprietary Microsoft technology, it is portable, and already runs on at least two different processors, neither or which is produced by Intel.

Further Information

Today, you can buy a Casio Cassiopeia for $499 or $599 at CompUSA or Computer City, among other outlets. The Philips Velo 1 will ship in January. Other companies with announced plans for HPC products include Compaq, Hewlett-Packard and NEC. Microsoft provides on-line information about Windows CE, as well as software that can be downloaded for use on HPC machines.

Copyright © 1996 Scott Nichol.
30-Nov-96