Given the company’s recent focus on their new Smartphone operating system, Ed Hardy over at Brighthand wonders if Microsoft is still committed to the Pocket PC?
During the recent Microsoft Professional Developers Conference, a panel discussion was held on ways to advance mobile computing. When an attendee asked what the future of Pocket PC was, a Microsoft employee answered “None.” While the other Microsoft employees on the panel backed off that stark statement, it was clear that they believed there wasn’t much room between Tablet PCs and smart phones.
Can you really blame them though? PDA sales are flat, and it seems pretty clear that the future for mobile devices or whatever is with wireless. Sooner or later almost every handheld will be able to wirelessly connect to the Internet in some way or another. And regardless, Ed makes the point that Microsoft’s Smartphone and Pocket PC operating systems are very similar, so improvements to one OS can usually be easily ported over to the other.
