While my general preference is for the Palm platform (for many of the reasons cited in the article), I believe the reviewer was overly critical of the PocketPC in at least a few areas:

1. Launchers/multitasking. This really isn't that much different in PocketPC vs Palm. One could argue that "out of the box" the Palm is simpler, but there are so many 3rd party launchers and app managers for the pocketPC that you can launch programs with minimal taps almost any way you want to.

2. Synchronization. Lots of differing opinions on this but I much prefer active-sync to hotsync. As a Windows/Office user, my synchronization was seamless and effortless. With hotsync, I have to manually synchronize my PIM data and manually setup files (with documents to go) that I want to synchronize vs the "drag-and-drop" capability on PocketPC.

3. Stability. My PocketPC devices were every bit as crash-resistant as my Palm devices. I use a lot of hacks/programs on both devices and found the PocketPC to soft/hard reset no more often than my Palm. However, what annoyed me the most about my PocketPC was the occasional temporary freeze that might last anywhere from 1-10 seconds -- often when I needed quick access to a contact or calendar entry.

The Palm platform generally does what's most important to me more effectively than PocketPC. But the PocketPC is a darned good platform and I miss some of the multi-tasking, synchronization, and other attractive features missing from my Palm device.