Page 1
Page 2
Hey, you got your phone in my PPC…
no, you got your PPC in my phone…
I was fortunate enough to get a hold
of a T-Mobile PPC Phone Edition device and play with it
for a couple of weeks. I have spoken with PPC enthusiasts
at user group meetings and at trade shows like the PPC Summit
and I have been surprised by the lack of enthusiasm about
this anticipated “integrated” device where the
phone and PPC become the “chocolate and peanut”
butter of the technology industry. Talking to folks who
are big on gadgets and the like, I expected most of them
to be in favor of the all-in-one PPC Phone Edition, however,
a surprising number balked at the idea and instead claimed
that they would prefer a separate cell phone for reasons
of size, cost or battery life. Now, it is important to mention
that none of these people had seen or used a PPC Phone Edition
device beyond the glimpse offered by the occasional presenter
showing off their personal prototype. After talking to a
number of these naysayers I began to rethink my position
on the all-in-one PPC Phone Edition. Being the gadget lover
I am, I figured that instead I would be best served with
both a PPC Phone Edition and a Smart Phone so that I could
take the appropriate device for the situation. I figured
PPC Phone Edition for meetings, travel and times when I
might need the extra computing power and the PPC Phone for
times when convenience of form factor was more a concern.
I was wrong.
After having a couple of weeks of hands
on experience with the T-Mobile unit, it is clear to me
that professionals are going to be drawn to this device,
and if a number of stars align, it may share a bigger piece
of the smart phone market than some of the industry pundits
have predicted. The main reason is that this single device
serves both needs well. The form factor is surprisingly
nice to handle as a phone, even if it doesn’t fold
in half. The full power of the PPC and the growing number
of PPC apps is there as well. The one integrated device
is definitely easier to carry around than both a PPC and
a phone. One could argue that they don’t always need
the power of a PPC with them but in turn I would argue that
if you just happened to have it (because it is built into
your phone) you might find yourself with more occasion to
use the robust functionality of the PPC. There is also the
fact that the basic phone functionality is rather nicely
integrated with things like the Contacts and Inbox when
working with features like speed dial or SMS messaging.
Eventually, when the software we develop for these devices
supports line of business and enterprise data connectivity,
professionals may just find themselves using the data functionality
of the PPC part of the device as much or more than the phone
portion. In time, I believe, that with the combination of
innovative and compelling software and services, as well
as lower device and connection charges, the same may hold
true for the average consumer. Take the example of the success
of SMS messaging in Europe. Personal communication devices
of tomorrow will be about a lot more than just phone calls.
You have heard examples of potential functionality like
being able to check the weather, highway conditions or flight
schedules from your device. The list of really captivating
applications for personal mobile connectivity is limited
only by the imagination now that real devices are hitting
the streets at affordable prices subsidized by the carriers.
Preparing for Tomorrow
What does this mean for us, the developer
community? As new platforms develop or significant changes
occur in the existing platforms we target, developers and
software companies are presented with new challenges and
opportunities. In some ways, the success or failure of many
of these new industry initiatives relies heavily on what
we, the developer community, end up doing about these opportunities.
The T-Mobile Pocket PC Phone Edition is a great device and
will undoubtedly enjoy a certain amount of success due to
its ability to address multiple needs in a single, slick,
well-designed package. The opportunity for us to create
applications that support the device is in and of itself
worth looking at. A whole different league of opportunity
presents itself when you consider the potential synergies
of the power of PPC, the mobile connectivity of the cell
phone, and the network access it provides. There is an opportunity
to innovate and be the first to create new ways of doing
things that may not have even been imagined before now.
If you are going to be one of the developers
to create one of those truly innovative applications your
idea will be more original and detailed than anything you
will see here. I did however, find that carrying around
a T-Mobile for a couple of weeks helped me get a feel for
some of the areas that we as developers might want to consider
paying some attention to so that we can take full advantage
of the trend towards integrated devices.
The Web
The first thing that I think a Pocket
PC Phone user might notice is how very few of the many millions
of websites out there are really Pocket PC friendly. If
you are responsible for development of a web site you will
want to start paying more serious consideration to the fact
that telecom carriers like Verizon are going to be arming
web surfers with Pocket PC Phone Edition devices and that
those surfers are potential traffic to your site. Yes, Pocket
IE will try and squeeze a standard web page down to the
¼ VGA of a Pocket PC screen but that is really less
than ideal. Pay special attention to the types of content
available on your site. Some types of content are more relevant
to these mobile surfers than others. These surfers are much
less likely to do extensive research while surfing on their
T-Mobile and are more likely in search of quick look up
and time sensitive information. Build accordingly. You don’t
need to make your entire site PPC friendly but many sites
will have some content that would be appropriate for the
growing mobile community. Consider making your home page
browser-aware so that PPC users automatically get the PPC
version of pages when they hit your site. The magic size
for web pages in Pocket IE is not simply the ¼ VGA
size of 240 x 320 pixels. After you take into account scroll
bars, tool bars, navigation bars and address bars you might
be ready for the bar yourself. The actual real estate inside
Pocket IE is something closer to 215 x 225 when all is said
and done, so experiment with sizes and different modes to
minimize the need for the Pocket PPC surfer to scroll around
just to see or navigate your site. Of course, you also want
to be very careful to minimize your use of graphics and
use any and all practical methods of reducing the size and
download time of your pages since the current speeds of
GPRS are sill similar to the dial up experience. Pocket
IE is currently only HTML 3.2 compliant and does not support
things like DHTML or animated GIF format so don’t rely
on some of the fancier features to get across your message
and for that matter strip them out of your PPC pages to
improve performance. For those of you who have made the
move to ASP.NET you should probably take a look at the Microsoft
Mobile Internet Toolkit that may help open your site to
an even broader audience of mobile users. Most importantly,
simple well thought out designs will make for happier mobile
surfers. One other hurdle that early PPC web surfers face
is finding suitable content. Better PPC friendly web directories
and even simple referral link pages to other PPC formatted
sites will help users find their way around while on the
move.
Next Page