by Frank McPherson, author of How To Do Everything With Windows Mobile

 
This morning I came across this article in The Register that chronicles the history of Psion, a British company that was making handheld computers at the time Windows CE (for the forerunner of Windows Mobile) came to be. The article came to me by way of Michael Mace.

Few today probably remember some of the innovative development going on in handhelds during late '80s and '90s around chip design and the integration of software with hardware. Looking at the buzz around the Asus Eee PC and HP Mini-note, I can't help but be reminded that Psion (HP, Atari, and others) were developing keyboard-based minicomputers almost 20 years ago. What Asus and HP are doing today is not new, it's just that there is now a larger market for these devices than existed back then.

Another interesting tidbit in the article is the conversations between Psion and Microsoft. Essentially, Psion wanted to make Windows CE devices provided that Microsoft would provide free licensing of Windows CE. Psion believed they could develop better Handheld PCs than Casio and Philips because they recognized the failings with their development of drivers. When I put this information in perspective of Microsoft's acquisition of Danger, it makes me wonder whether the Danger acquisition is a do-over. At the time of the Handheld PC, I think a Psion Windows CE Handheld would have made a hit out of the park and accelerated Microsoft's success with Windows CE. Rather than making money on the licensing, Microsoft could have acquired all or part of Psion and made money on the hardware. At that time Microsoft refused to get into the hardware biz, making the recent Danger acquisition all the more curious.

For me the article goes back to the argument in handheld computing about whether to design a device from ground up as a mobile device (Psion, Newton, Palm), or to re purpose intellectual capitol to develop a mobile operating system (Microsoft, Symbian). In my mind there is no doubt that devices designed and built holistically, including operating system and hardware, are much more elegant than mass produced devices. Both, however, are needed: one side to drive down prices, the other to drive up quality and user experience. The degree to which these two forces compete is the extent to which consumers benefit, and this is why Apple's iPhone is so important to those of us who use Windows Mobile.

Labels: 2008

posted by Frank at 1:00 PM

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