Handheld computers may be a dying breed, at least in consumer terms, but there is still a huge business market for them. I've encountered three in the past couple of days. The first was toted by the chap who came to read my electricity meter. The second was handed to me for an "electronic signature" by someone delivering a package to my door. The third was used by a waiter in a fairly trendy Indian restaurant, which shows just how far things have come...

Or perhaps not. It has been obvious for at least 20 years that this kind of handheld computing could provide huge productivity benefits. In fact, a small British company designed a rugged industrial handheld called Husky in 1980: I remember seeing its application for pub stock-taking in about 1983 (it was called Inn-ventory). General Motors was soon buying Huskies for maintenance applications.

The first Psion Organiser followed not far behind. Indeed, Psion is still in this business, with the Canadian company, Psion Teklogix, which it purchased in 2000.

It is not hard to find applications for handhelds in manufacturing, retailing, wholesaling, distribution, all the utility services, government - including education and health services - and all forms of field work. In other words, handhelds should already be ubiquitous.

Some applications might once have been difficult, but it is hard to see the barriers today. GPRS mobile data services and Wi-Fi wireless networks mean data can be uploaded almost instantly, and you can easily add extra features from bar-code readers to GPS satellite-based location finders.

Nor should cost be a problem. Handheld computers will not always be the most cost-effective way of doing things, but it should be easy enough to work out. And according to a recent report from Analysys, you only need a productivity improvement of 1.7% to 3.4% to achieve break-even ROI. If you can use existing handhelds, this falls to 0.6-1.4%.

The case for white-collar workers and middle managers is harder to make, unless they are salesman. (What is the financial benefit of access to email while on the move?) However, their needs are easier to meet using off-the-shelf consumer products such as PDAs (personal digital assistants), smart phones and notebook PCs. Also, support for mobile information workers is becoming a standard part of business software suites such as Microsoft's Windows Server System, IBM's WebSphere and the whole web services industry.

Indeed, the long-term trend is for what used to be wired devices - such as phones, terminals and computers - to be replaced by wireless devices. This does, unfortunately, involve a wide range of wireless technologies, including Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, data broadcasting, GSM, GPRS and several versions of 2.5-3G, but the direction is clear.

So the question isn't whether or not to have mobile applications. The real issue is whether to plan for them, and try to wring an advantage from them, or just drift into them like everybody else.

Links

Husky
www.obsoletecomputermuseum.org/husky

Psion Organiser 1
www.bioeddie.co.uk/models/psion-organiser-1.htm

Psion Teklogix
www.psionteklogix.com/ptxCMS/Core.aspx

Analysys: Return on Investment from Mobile Business Data Applications
http://research.analysys.com