Hewlett-Packard is about to launch the sleekest, most stylish and most powerful range of palmtop computers on the market, the Jornada 540 series, running Microsoft's latest Pocket PC software. Compaq and Casio are also using the new operating system, and have new Pocket PCs on the way. The systems, announced last week, are almost certain to make a dent in Palm's dominant share of the palmtop computer market.
However, not everyone needs the power and versatility Pocket PCs offer. Most people won't care how much more they can do, as long as the Palm does what they want.
But it's hard to see Palm's colour machine, the IIIc, surviving the Jornada's onslaught. The Palm IIIc's screen is smaller both physically and in terms of its resolution, offering only 160 x 160 pixels compared with the Jornada's 240 x 320. Worse, the IIIc shows only 256 colours instead of the Jornada's 65,536, so images - including web pages - look crude by comparison.
Nor does the Palm IIIc have any advantages in size or battery life, which are virtually the same, or even price.
The main differences are that the Jornada provides more facilities (web browser, MP3 player etc), more memory (16MB or 32MB instead of 8MB), much more built-in software (16MB compared with 2MB), and much more expandability. However, the IIIc is noticeably lighter at 192g against the Jornada's 260g.
If the HP Jornada is bad news for Palm's prospects of selling colour machines, it's not going to make life easy for its rivals, Casio and Compaq. Both plan to offer the new Pocket PC software - aka Windows CE 3.0 - in what are basically lastgeneration machines pending the arrival of new designs. Casio, for example, has announced the Cassiopeia E-115 to replace the E-105, but it's basically the same boxy-looking machine.
Compaq has simply installed the new software in its superthin Aero systems, which have monochrome screens but display 16 shades of grey. (And if you bought an Aero 1520 or 2100 after February 24, Compaq will upgrade it free.)
Compaq is also bringing out a new range of iPaq Pocket PC devices (pictured right) in the summer. These are remarkably quick - they have 206MHz Intel StrongARM processors - and the basic design can be expanded by fitting one of a series of Jackets. The first two will provide standard CompactFlash and PC Card slots, but later versions could provide, for example, pager or mobile phone functions. A "boom box" Jacket with built-in speakers could convert the iPaq into an MP3 music player thatdoesn't need headphones.
Most Windows CE/Pocket PC computers already have a standard CompactFlash or PC/PCMCIA Card slot built in, and this highlights the Palm's greatest weakness: its poor expandability. The HP Jornada's CompactFlash comptibility meant I could use existing peripherals such as Pretec's 56K modem and Socket's $139 LP-E Ethernet card.
Both Socket and Xircom have already demonstrated a CompactFlash Bluetooth card for "personal area networking" (Bluetooth replaces wires for connecting devices up to about 10m apart). You can even get CompactFlash hard drives - IBM's 170MB and 340MB Microdrives - which is a great way to exploit the Pocket PCs built-in stereo MP3 music player software.
The original designers of the Palm Pilot tried to remedy the problem by leaving to set up a new company, Handspring, and by launching a new machine, the Visor, pictured left. This has the same easy-to-use Palm software, but different hardware. In particular, the Visor has its own Springboard expansion slot on the back.
Handspring says a range of cartridges could be available: a pager, a modem, an MP3 music player, memory cards and game packs. Unfortunately it's not an industry standard like the CompactFlash slot used by the Pocket PC. The Handspring system - which will be launched in the UK on May 4 - means you can't simply plug in CompactFlash memory cards from your digital camera and other devices.
Which is not to say that the Pocket PC arena is without its own compatibility problems. For example, Casio has designed a camera that fits into a CompactFlash slot but - like Sharp's earlier PC Card camera - it is expected to work only with its own systems.
HP plans to launch the Stowaway fold-up keyboard, which is already available for Palm systems, for the Jornada range, but it won't work with rival hardware. And while Compaq says its iPaq Jackets are "based on a new open standard technology", the Jackets will only fit Compaq's machines.
Further, unlike the Palm, the Pocket PC may also have software compatibility problems. Windows CE isn't just a palmtop operating system, it's used in more than 350 products including games consoles, gambling machines, vibration detectors, petrol pumps and videophones (Orange is due to release one in the UK this year).
CE also runs on 21 different processor families including Mips, Intel x86, StrongARM and Hitachi SH chips. Indeed, the three manufacturers making Pocket PCs for retail sale use different processors, so the same executable programs won't run on more than one. While few Palm owners have any idea which chip their machine uses, Pocket PC buyers will have to know which version of each program - Mips, StrongARM or Hitachi SH3 - to download.
This problem will eventually be solved by the release of a Common Executable Format (CEF) that will enable software houses to create one version of a program for different machines - but Microsoft hasn't announced it yet.
Whether the Pocket PC will ultimately triumph over the Palm and its clones remains to be seen, but they are based on different views of the world. Microsoft is betting that users will want to do more and more things with their Pocket PCs: they already work as electronic organisers, MP3 players, electronic book readers, picture viewers and games machines. Soon they'll work as pagers, mobile phones, and wireless terminals, too.
If that's what people want, Microsoft wins - though the result is a complex device, even given the vastly simplified Pocket PC user interface.
Palm systems are much simpler, and while they don't do as much, they are very easy to use: you can be up and running within five minutes. If they do all you want to do, Palm wins - unless you want a colour screen as well, because the Palm IIIc simply isn't good enough. Putting a IIIc next to a Jornada 540 is like putting a Ford Fiesta next to an Aston Martin.
