I'd like to contribute my two cents to a certain non-technical discussion
ongoing about the Palm versus CE merits. I have been a part of the
computing revolution since the first pc's came out (Altair, Sinclair, TRS
80, IBM PC, Apple II, etc) back in the late 70's early 80's. and one
observation that can be made is, that no platform, no matter how sweet it
seems at the time, lasts very long if it doesn't aggressively and constantly
reinvent itself. That means more features, more power, greater complexity,
more room for bugs, more newbies trying to program it, in short, more of all
the things that tend to drive developers crazy.
I'll complain along with everyone else about the effort it takes to keep up
with all the changes MS (and other platform vendors including 3COM) throw at
us, but it's not their fault... it simply is the price of success in a
highly competitive environment. My fervent hope is that 3COM will
aggressively exploit and build on the current Palm device platform and blow
our minds with new API's, greater power, more complexity, more room for bugs
and encouraging more newbies trying to program for it... in short do all
the things that drive us crazy, because it is the only way they will
survive.
Maybe the Palm VII is the key, but one thing is for sure, Palm has to base
it's success on something more than battery life, which is what a lot of
these discussions boil down to. If Duracell comes out with a battery that
lasts 3 months in a CE device... well, I don't want to think about that.
Venting complete, back to work.
Mitch
