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| Subject: | MobileLBSList: GIS and Wireless PDAs - MapInfo versus ESRI |
| Date: |
09/16/2000 05:32:46 PM |
| From: |
Neil Havermale |
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Carolyn -
I have been thinking about PDAs and their pending effect on GIS (and should
I coin it?) gCommerce. What follows is long winded response to your small
question...
The "gCommerce" issues of the stand alone PDA design, in our interest
ArcPAD, or "socialized" PDA as suggested by MapInfo's design in MapXtend, is
not a simple one. From our narrow perspective of GIS it implies thinking
about one of the really big issues of the information age - ubiquitous
computing and access to everything anywhere. So.....
To start:
You don't know where to go if you don't know where you are.
Michael Capellas, President and CEO of Compaq issued at the recent CTIA
Wireless 2000 "four fearless predictions" for the next four years in the
wireless world, all of which will be very good for the consumer if they hold
true. These predictions are:
"VoIP will be a truly disruptive technology...so much so that
telecommunications costs will drop by more than 70%.'
"60% of all calls will be wireless, and a growing percentage of those
consist of purely data.'
"In four years, there will be 1 billion (with a B!) internet access
devices.'
"True convergence will be in place so that the consumer will not be able to
differentiate between computing and communications companies. Instead, they
will only see information companies."
You question, "Does this mean you can't store the data on the PDA but you
can with ArcPad?", was one I put to MapInfo several months ago when I first
heard about MapXtend.
It is my opinion that Oracle seems to dominate future thinking at MapInfo in
this regard and I'll say that is good. Oracle is not much interested in the
databases that could exist in the Access/Office world (stand alone). They
are I am certain interested in the one billion internet access devices
Michael predicts. And he is not alone!
These macro trends and Oracle's alliance in fact affect the design of
MapInfo's interest in the PDA. And we who live and breathe MapInfo should
think deeply on this as well.
Some background on the PDA battle between WinCE and PalmOS. The issue that
seems to be the gut of the problem is a difference in how WinCE and PalmOS
look at the PDA user. Microsoft has seen them as they would see the
traditional PC user - alone at his Windozed workstation/PDA using the
internet to gain additional information or as an embedded CPU and process
that say manages a gasoline pump with a credit card access. And you have to
"pay" attention to what Microsoft does.
WinCE was first and foremost in my mind a way for Microsoft to reach out to
the RISC (read non-Intel) processors - all silicon foundries need an OS.
They needed something that looked, walked, and sounded like Windows but one
that would not alienate themselves from Intel. It fit Bill's perception of
a windozed world.
Palm on the other hand decided that the "utility" of a PDA would require
tight integration between the hardware design and the software. The very
reason they have succeeded is in keeping it simple (or so we are told - I
think there is more to it). Microsoft's WinCE can exist in a traditional
WinTel computer (Libretto and other tiny laptops) as well in the host of
RISC chips and their PDA Palm-look-alikes.
I look at WinCE as Bill's attempt to slip the less than dainty foot of
Windoze into Cinderella's glass slipper - or Palm's success (Still selling 7
or 8 to one over WinCE devices and did Bill really get caught on email
telling his group to alter WindowsME such that PalmOS would not easily
synchronize to Office?).
Should your PDA carry huge RAM and virtual RAM in a tiny format (the WinCE
design) or will it evolve around the concept of a small but powerful design
with wireless access to essentially the WWW?
This is a doubly difficult issue for we at Red Hen who support farmers,
foresters, and the like. The necessary wideband wireless networks will just
not appear "out there" like they are projected for our urban majority.
Certainly wireless will be on the "go" our urban concentration - estimates
are widespread availability next year! The cell phone technologies are
lathered up over somehow getting a meter on the total bits moved versus
simple time counting. And from what I hear and read the wide band 3G
supporting technologies will be running upwards of 256 and over Kbaud - and
in not so far distant future wireless will be faster than your LAN Ethernet!
http://www.gsmdata.com/3G.htm
One last confounding trend is the emergence of an ever more sophisticated
PDA. How big of a memory space does a PDA need? How many devices must it
connect to? Now this is where the choices really get interesting.
WinCE is not the PDA for me nor does it seem to be for MapInfo. I like Palm
and Palm's attitude toward licensing of its OS. Its licensing model may be
what Bill and Microsoft are forced to do - someday.
As of today I believe SONY, Nokia, IBM, and Handspring have licensed the
PalmOS. What is interesting is that any innovation developed by them
individually that extends the PalmOS must be provided to all PalmOS
licensors - sort of a Linux open source but with rules. (Could someone help
me here?)
If you study the "next" designs pending from these PalmOS licensors you will
see each has:
A) an extended memory design - Handspring its Springboard: SONY its Memory
Stick (up to 256MB these days), IBM with an internal proprietary design: and
Palm has a as yet not widely mentioned memory definition: and
B) wireless connections via cell phone technologies and stuff like
Bluetooth. You can make cell phone calls now on Palms and CEs, SONY is
investing heaps in SONY Style cell phones for Europe, and Nokia, well I
understand that they are looking to licen |
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