May 2006
Handango to offer Windows Mobile and Tablet PC apps through Windows Marketplace
Handango, the leading provider of mobile content, announced it will provide Windows Mobile and Tablet PC content on Windows Marketplace, a shopping portal for customers to find and buy software and hardware for the Windows operating system. The mobile catalog will include games, entertainment, productivity content and more from Handango's catalog of more than 190,000 titles and will offer commerce and electronic software download delivery through Handango's robust content provisioning system, Handango AMPP. -- Posted Wednesday, May 24, 2006 by chb
Verizon to offer sexy Moto Q by end of May
CNET reports that Verizon will be the first to sell the Windows Mobile-based sexy Motorola Q phone when it goes on sale May 31 for US$199.99 with 2-year service contract and after rebates. One look at the Q suggests that this is Motorola's attempt at going after the lucrative BackBerry market with a device that offers similar design and functionality, but also includes a much broader range of features, such as video, music, and access to corporate applications. -- Posted Tuesday, May 23, 2006 by chb
ProMedica adopts mobile PatientKeeper applications
ProMedica Health System, the largest health care provider in northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan, today announced that it has adopted PatientKeeper as its physician information system. Physicians use the PatientKeeper Mobile Clinical Results application to access their patients' medical records and the PatientKeeper Charge Capture application to accurately record the services they provide. PatientKeeper can support any tablet or PC running a Web browser as well as Palm OS and Windows Mobile devices. -- Posted Tuesday, May 23, 2006 by chb
Mitac beefs marketing budget for GPS push
DigiTimes reports that Mitac will spend over US$30 million in marketing and promoting its impressive line of GPS and GPS-enabled devices (see DigiTimes photo). The company hopes to ship four million of them this year. Our take: GPS-enabled Pocket PCs and standalones have been one of the few bright spots in an otherwise dismal "conventional" PDA market. Adding GPS gave Mitac a bit of an extra edge, but we're not sure it's enough for sustained growth. That will likely require addition of phone and digital TV features. -- Posted Tuesday, May 23, 2006 by chb
Good snatches large account from RIM
Good Technology, a provider of industry standards-based enterprise handheld computing software and service, today announced that Thomson has replaced its BlackBerry system with over a thousand GoodLink-enabled Palm OS based Treo 650 smartphones, and Pocket PC devices. The company is running GoodLink on carriers Sprint and T-Mobile in the United States, and Orange in Europe. Our take: This may be just the beginning of a lot of switching over from RIM after RIM showed a willingness to settle with patent infringement attempts, which practically invites further lawsuits, plus a general move towards more industry standard solutions. -- Posted Thursday, May 11, 2006 by chb
Conventional PDAs continue to drop
According to eChannelLine, a new IDC report says that the worldwide market for conventional handhelds continues to drop. It's now down to 1.5 million units the first quarter of 2006, and that despite integration of WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth, VGA screens, etc. The biggest problem is that many of those features are available in the booming smartphone market. Palm is still on top with conventional handhelds, following a good reception of the Tungsten E2 and the Z22 last year. However, Palm's Treo smartphone business is now larger than its PDA business. HP, though sputtering, continues to hold the #2 spot. Dell is at #3, but the x30/x50 lines are pretty much end-of-life. The 4 and 5 spots are held by Acer and Mio. Mio is also the only top five vendor with a hefty sales increase. -- Posted Monday, May 8, 2006 by chb