PDAPhoneHome.com - View Single Post - Evaluating Pocket PC vs. Palm OS

I have used both extensively, and they each have there advantages. Pocket PC is Windows, and as such I found it to not be quite as stable as Palm... but that is going to vary by device. I have seen Pocket PCs that were solid and Palm devices that weren't, and the reverse. But, in general I think that Palm is more stable. That is really kind of a nit.

Currently, Pocket PC is multitasking and Palm is not. In some cases you don't realize it, because for example, you can have an MP3 playing, while you look up a contact... or you can be on the phone, while you are looking in a database. But, it isn't multitasking. I have run into a limitation because I want to be able to do Mapopolis (GPS and Navigation), Pocket Tunes (MP3), and the Phone, at the same time. I can do this fine on a Pocket PC, but in Palm some things get stopped when you switch between them.... still very cool and usable, but not as slick as Pocket PC... so the multitasking can be a real constraint.

Screen size is a limiation of the Pocket PC. Yes, I said it is a limitation. Microsoft forces a minimum size, which means that you can't make a Pocket PC Phone smaller.... you just can't do it. Why? Don't know. Imagine a Treo 600 sized Pocket PC Phone with a 320x320 display the size of the Treo's. That would be cool, but it isn't going to happen. Microsoft has defined Smartphone (small) and Pocket PC or Windows Mobile now (big). Just like with Little Red Riding Hood, perhaps the "just right" is in the middle... right where the Treo 600 is sitting. All of that said, the larger displays let you do a lot more with Pocket PC. But, I think you could do that on Palm if you had a higher res display like on the Clies.

Usability between Palm and Pocket PC to me is like Mac and PC. I feel like I'm a layer removed from where I want to be in Palm, while I have a familar file manager type structure in Pocket PC. I'm sure there are utilities to overcome this, but I haven't used them.

In the past, expansion went heavily to the Pocket PC side... but recently we are seeing expansion cards and more memory on Palm The lines are getting closer I think.