Hun-Speak

Click here for other Hun-Speak columns.

August 12, 2002 -- My Next PDA

Every so often, a new PDA from Handspring, Sony, or someone would come along and I would ask the musical question, "Will this be my next PDA?" No matter how compelling the new features might be, the answer I keep coming back with is "No." Sony's latest devices have built in keyboards, nice color screens, MP3 players, and universal remote capability. Handspring has married the PDA and the cellphone with their Treo line. But ultimately, all of them have fallen short.

The big problem is that these devices are not gigantic improvements over my Handspring Visor Deluxe, yet the price tags put them out of my range. The color Treo 270 lists for $499 with a service contract, $699 without. Similarly, the Sony Clié PEG-NR70 lists for $499. Five hundred bucks is an awful lot of cash to spend for improvements that best can be described as incremental.

What I really want is a device that does not exist yet. I want a nice, hi-res (320x480), color screen like the PEG-NR70. But I would also like the Treo's cellphone capabilities, especially once 3G cellular technology reaches little towns. Yeah, Sprint says its 3G network is "nationwide." That's true as long as you define "nationwide" as "any town over 100K people." I also have not seen Sprint's pricing plans for data transfer, but I've heard numbers like $1-$3 per megabyte tossed around. That's awfully pricy.

It may sound like I'm asking for the world (color, high-speed Internet, under $500). Right now, I am. But I know technology marches on. Today's $500 PDAs will drop in price as new models come out. 3G cellular will eventually get truly nationwide. Once there is more competition in the 3G market, prices will drop. Hey, who wouldn't want a 144K connection directly to the palm of your hand wherever you are?

I have a dream that one day I will be doing something dreadful (like sitting mindlessly in a doctor's waiting room or waiting for my wife to finally get done shopping), but then I'll pull my PDA out of my pocket and dial up streaming video of ESPNEWS to pass the time. Sound crazy? Well, it wasn't that long ago that I thought my brand new U.S. Robotics 14.4K modem was screamingly fast. My PDA has the same processing power and eight times the memory that my first "real" (read: PC-compatible) computer had only a little over a decade ago. Will my PDA ten years from now have the power of my current Athlon XP 1800+? It's certainly possible!

I am realistic, though. I know that it will be some time before these technologies mature enough that they will be affordable for the Average Joe. Until that time comes, I can't see myself spending a bunch of Benjamins on a PDA that will not give me substantially more than I already have. I can wait.