PDA Decline due to terrible Marketing Stratergies

[markopo]

yep, the x51v is a good choice despite the issues.

this combined with a notebook\smarthpone\bluetooth mobile as modem is a good combo.

my req:notebook with wuxga, little too big to carry along everywhere etc
smarthphone:works great with the new highspeed services etc, but screen is too bad to work on,film,games etc.
bluetooth mobile:a cheap one that can be used on a night out and as a modem for laptop\axim.

the x51v is the perfect mix between,notes,calendar etc synced with notebook\smarthphone.
and music,games and video on sd4GB\cf8GB combined.

a coworker showed of his 80gb video ipod, and how he could watch movie clips he had prepared on his pc. i transferred over a high def ac3 video clip, and played it on tcpmp without having to prepare it.

he played around with the axim,surfed,the tony hawk game,music etc

before he said "atleast ican carry along 80gb of music"

[Ashton]

Riddle me this... who int he world has 80gb of music? my ENTIRE music collection is 4-6gb! if my 8gb microdrive were X51v compatable, I coudl carry all my music with me at once and have room to spare! In the event of needing 80gb of storage, you can always buy a Ratoc USB host (or a PDA with USB root host functionality like the Zaurus) and use an external HD (hell you can get 0.5 Tb then, REALLY make the Ipod jerks turn green!)

For comparison, let us ignore a moment the processor speed and look at the Zaurus LS1000 series. they have a large screen and a 4-8gb microdrive built in. They also have a USB port and CF/SD card slots. the only place imo they lack really is no integrated wireless connectivity. even BT would be nice if not WiFi.

As for advertising, I have never seen a TV advert for an Axim. Never. BUT I can turn on almso tany channel at any time and before the program's over, I've seen atleast 2 adverts for Ipods. Targeting be damned, Dell didn't even get what they had out there in the public's eye!

I tell everyone I see that I have a Pocket PC, not a PDA, I've had too many poeple think a PDA is a glorfied organizer. I had one gal I know offer to buy my X51v right off the bat then and there, but I wouldnt' part with it, I told her I'd sell her my old X5 for $200 and she said yes after seeing what a PPC could do (though I've not seen her in nearly 2 months now and thus the deal fell through...)

You want a data plan? I pay around $10 a month and have unlimited data use for any DUN capable device, including my laptop and PDA (both Dell, I might add) PLUS I get phone service and GPS service. that's all I need from a phone, I tried the WAP browser thing and it's not worth the time IMO.

A smartphone is a cell phone that can half-arse run a few crappy programs, it's not a PPC, as stated because it uses a <200mhz processor and the screen is so tiny, not to mention the keypad is not a fun way to interact with a phone.

I do have to yield that in audio playback battery life, the X51v and even the X5, who's batter life was hte longest I've ever seen, do not measure up. I have a Napster 1gb MP3 player and I can get around 16 hours of play on 1 charge. my X5 lasted 8 hours and my X51v lasts at *most* 6 if I turn off the screen and use headphones at a low volume. The device was touted as a multimedia device, but I have YET to find a single video format that is compatable! not even raw Mpeg or AVI! While TCPMC will play ANYTHING I throw at it outside of Real Video/REal Audio (which I have to admit sucks compared to MP4, but back in the mid 90s, REAL was the media king!) And if I did find a format... do I really want to watch a movie on a 1" by 1.5" screen?

But, people saying the X60cellphone idea would work are wrong. to make a cellphone you have to make it tiny, preferably so tiny that a falling dandruf flake woulc crack it in half (*rolls eyes*) and one of the greatest advancements in the X50v is the VGA screen, which would be lost, including touch-screen input. Next, you'd lose your SD/CF slots because of the small size, and BT/WiFi have to go too because you want people to use your cellular data plan and be charged by the Kb instead of WiFi, which is free. In the end you'd have an above-average smartphone, but nothing to write home about.

UMPCs will eventually have a 'quick access PIM' feature, much like the Samsung Q1 will play media without booting XP, so you dont have to wait, and then if you need the full power, you boot into XP and have a full tablet PC at your fingertips. For me the only think holding back UMPCs is the price. I constantly watch the prices on these things and right now, eBay has the UX180 for around 800-1000 and the Q1 for around 600-800. I saw a fully-loaded 1.3ghz/256mb/40gb Tablet PC, WITH keyboard and OS disks, WITH DVD/CD-RW for $300 - 400. I paid $200 for my X50v (which I later had dell upgrade to an X51v). If I could get a UMPC for $300, I would grab it.

I agree Dell missed the boat on marketing, hell they're looking for the ocean in the Saharrah! But also people do not do their research and end up with products they think they want and dont really need. I spent time looking at the i930 smartphone, thinking it would be an X5 replacement. I did my research and wanted to stab myself with an icepick when I found out the truth! (I'm gonna get a cellular-link cable for my i450 and then my Axim will have all the cell-phone function it needs!) Yes, MP3 players play music great, but they harlfass do everythign else. The Axim does everythign great, Dell should have marketed it as a laptop replacement, but didn't. The Axim could have at the least competed with media solutions and organizers and laptops, but instead it lay hidden. I was looking for a PDA to read ebooks on and was considering a PALM or a Visor, it wasn't untill a Truely nerdy IT guy I knew showed me his Axim (X3i, I think) that I even knew Dell made a PDA! Hell, if not for that I still probably wouldn't know it!)

Anyway...

It could have been popular, but, Instead it's a "nerd toy" and I will be shocked if there's ever an X60v released, unless they scale the axim into a true UMPC/Tablet or crap it out into a smartphone (which I somehow dont see Dell doing).

[Amamba]

Do people think Smartphones are a niche market?
Can anybody tell me why an Smartphone (WindowsMobile) is not considered a PocketPc + Phone?
I think people are getting out of the point of this thread. The idea is that marketing campaigns on PocketPcs talk about it being a PIM where you can
view some documents. They never focus on the multimedia capacities (Media Player) when they have better screens and processors than other PMP.
And you are not restricted to a specific video/music format with the right software (TCMP/Betaplayer). And you can have email (FlexMail),surf the net (Opera,NetFront), VoIp (Skype), Messenger,GPS and anything you find the software to do it, even Games. If people knew all of this, maybe it wouldn't be a niche market.
It is NOT just a PIM.

Any product is the niche product, you just have to define your niche.

The people who want a multimedia machine that looks "kewl" and who don't give a flying Pam Anderson about things like word processing and project management get iPod - it's sleek and it has a lot of accessories and you don't look dorky carrying it around, unlike an Axim with an extended battery and protective case and belt clip. It's a large group of consumers, and a growing one. It includes more and more mature people who only want to listen to their music.

The busy business users who are busy working for their busy business that keeps them busy ( I just had to pull Mr President here ) need a tool. They need a laptop that runs real applications. So far there's been a shortage of truly portable laptops on the market, but the number is growing. They still need a PDA mainly as a pocket PIM but alot of them (especially the sleazy sales types :) ) went to Blackberry or some other converged device.

That leaves people who just want a PDA, a computer that can do more than just PIM but still fits in the pocket. This is, indeed, a niche market. Once portable laptops the size of a day planner (whatever they are called then) become available, the PPC market will shrink - some of it going to Palm (since now all they need is a PIM, and Palm is good at that), some (I guess most) of it going to converged devices.

And to answer your question about SmartPhones - it's indeed a PPC + Phone, but it's a shit@y and limited PPC thus far. May be we'll see better OS and better hardware in the future.

It would be nice if there was a PPC+Phone that was as capable as the X51 etc. I have the X5 (yes it is still around) and when it dies I will most likely get a SmartPhone. My wish is that when that happens the SmartPhones will be as capable as the ppc's are now. :)

[Ashton]

@ Ralleyclimber:
LOL!!! ROTFLMTO!!! The day a smartphone is even as capable is the X5 will be a million years from now, probably not untill they find a way to create a chip that's the size of a pinhead and can run 1.9 thz (terrahertz) will the smartphone manufacturers even stick a 500mhz processor in there...

[technofreak]

lets face it......people are stupid.......i have a blackberry pearl and everyone still goes for sidekicks just cuz they're sidekicks....

i HATE having to use two hands for something as basic as a cellphone and with the suretype on the blackberry, i can text reasonably fast....a skilled texter can probably type stuff better on the blackberry than the sidekick because theres less keys to press.....the thing is chunky

and im a lefty so the sidekick is out for me i like the trackball actually IN my reach

then theres the ipods everyone says they are superior to other music players WHATS SO "SUPERIOR" THEM???? there are cheaper players out there with as good if not better features.........

also who would want to watch stuff on the tiniest screen you could probably ever see NOT ME THATS FOR SURE!!

AXIMS, and Pocket PCs in general can do so many things when combined via bluetooth......

BROWSE THE INTERNET WITH ACTIVEX ...... i go on myspace with my x51v alot and with DUN i can stream the music and slideshows and such anywhere as long as i have my cellphone

WATCH HIGH QUALITY VIDEO ......... dudes its 640x480 vga, ur ipod cant do that so shut up already!

MEMORY SLOTS ..........who would need 40-60GB of storage for music? ITS JUST MUSIC THERE PROBABLY ARENT ENOUGH SONGS U ACTUALLY WOULD LISTEN TO TO FILL THAT.......slap on the memory cards 12GB will last you a looooong time

QUALITY ......... there are music programs that take advantage of the Pocket PCs computing power to spit out high quality sound and video.......puts everything else to shame.....

DO YOUR HOMEWORK NOW!!! .......the axim when used with a keyboard and mouse can get u to get stuff done in the here and now rather than later at home

GAMES ........the darn thnig is really a miniature computer with extremely high gaming potential........hey someone can find a way to interface using CF slots D pads and A and B buttons and that stuff

[Mr Gobz]

Most people still don't understand PDA's. I had an argument with a coworker yesterday about the benefits of a PDA. He still thinks you just keep a list of phone numbers in it.

I find it interesting that PDA's are losing in popularity but they are still hotly contested on ebay. I've been trying to buy a replacement for my X5 and the used units on ebay, even 4 or 5 year old units such as the hp h1910, go for pretty good prices. My X5 still works perfectly, it just doesn't have a few features that I would like to have. So at least we can have faith that used but fully useful units will be available for a good period of time.

I think it would be great if Dell just made an X51V that actually worked. (The problems documented in our own forums here are horrendous.)

Yes when I first got my Axim with Rom A02 installed about a year ago I must admit it was a right royal pain in the ass !, it`s only now I have A12 rom that I`m really getting some proper joy out of it. Trouble with upgrading the Rom is that you have to reinstall all yer stuff again !, I learnt from this a while ago and always try to install alot of things to Sd and CF micro drive if I can so that cuts out some of that problem. Biggest problem still though is that all of the shortcuts that you have built up on your home section get lost too, so gotta do all of that again each time.

It`s good to have more than one portable device too, instead of just owning one that does everything, why ?, well Let`s face it an axim x51v with micro drive, SD cards and a whole bunch of software - you are looking at a £500 loss if it goes astray !, it`s good to have a seperate phone for those times when you don`t want to worry about losing the Axim ( going down the pub, wandering about at night etc ). You can still have some music and a few quiz games plus low res video TV channels to keep you amused during thoses in between Axim moments !, plus your not quiet going to have a heart attack if it were lost or stolen.