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Is the PDA dead, or close?

PDAI was watching an old episode of Tekzilla and one of the viewer questions was about the PDA already in a state of becoming obsolete. The hosts argued that since smartphones are becoming more popular, they’ve slowly replaced the stand-alone PDAs.

Makes sense — why get a separate PDA and a phone when you can have a smartphone? The first and last time I got me a PDA was 2004; t’was a Palm Zire 71.

Only used it for about 3 or 4 months and completely forgot about it. T’was too bulky to tag around and battery life wasn’t that good. Fortunately, I was able to swap it with a friend for a brand new Dunlop badminton racket and bag. I was on the shorter end of the deal but was fine to get rid of it.

Palm isn’t even doing any better lately. There’s also the threat of the iPhone, esp. once the official 3rd-party apps are out.

Anybody out there still using PDAs (the stand-alone ones)?

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Avatar for Abe Olandres

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines. He is also a technology consultant, a tech columnist with several national publications, resource speaker and mentor/advisor to several start-up companies.

19 Responses

  1. Avatar for Ernesto Soules Ernesto Soules says:

    The Zune concentrates on currently being a Transportable Media Player. Not a net browser. Not a game machine. Perhaps in the long term it’ll do even better in people spots, but for now it’s a wonderful way to organize and hear to your songs and videos, and is with no peer in that regard. The iPod’s strengths are its web browsing and apps. If those sound far more compelling, maybe it is your best alternative.

  2. Avatar for annie annie says:

    I don’t have a smartphone (just a basic one) and I do have a PDA. I use my PDA a lot, mainly for appointments, notes, and as a portable media player for music, movies and books on the go. Sadly, it is becoming more difficult to find apps to expand the use of my faithful Lifedrive.

    I could reasonably switch to a smartphone, but refuse to do so until I locate one that I can use comfortably as a media player in my van as well. I hear the iPhone would work, but for now I’m content with my stodgy old phone and faithful Lifedrive.

  3. Avatar for Doug Doug says:

    I use my PDA daily to track my expenses and milage. I have used many programs and I use my PDA heavily

  4. Avatar for jerry jerry says:

    I recently moved up to a WiFi PDA & find that not even the manufacture support them, they’ve all moved onto phones. I have a Sony Clie & even Palm no longer supports it’s Life Drive.

    Sadly they don’t care, like so much of business today, companies are all chasing the new hot market while abandoning their older products. They seem to feel they can force people to keep buying the new stuff.

    Sad.

  5. Avatar for Chris Ongsuco Chris Ongsuco says:

    You mean your PDA when you’re still with ITI? Yeah I remember…hehehe =P

  6. Avatar for Ryan Ryan says:

    I always wanted PDA but could never justify the purchase. If I couldn’t be bothered to us a paper organizer, what difference would a gadget organizer make? My life was never complicated enough to need structuring anyway.

    Business users who rush from meeting to meeting may still need them, but they also want the highest end gadgets and less stuff to carry around, so smartphones have been takin gover. There hasn’t been much, if any new PDA releases, so I think it’s safe to say they’re dead or on the way out.

  7. Avatar for BrianB BrianB says:

    A PDA with cellular calling, now we’re talking.

  8. Avatar for Lyle, RN Lyle, RN says:

    It’s not dead yet.. but it’s dying. My Dell Axim x50v has been sitting on desk gathering dust.

    PDAs are still useful for medical / nursing professionals though.

  9. Avatar for orgl orgl says:

    It could still have some use and application for some people if the price is right, let’s say around 1K would still be a good gadget for the masses or jolog like me :) or maybe a good replacement for a casio or sharp scientific calculator for engineering students.

  10. Avatar for Al Al says:

    I forgot to provide the blog I created, here it is: http://globalwirelesstech.blogspot.com

    Cheers!

  11. Avatar for Al Al says:

    Hi Abe, this is off-topic (I hope you don’t mind) since you don’t have time for my request I decided to blog it. I also placed a link of your blog. I hope you make time to link my site to yours.

    Thanks and regards,
    Al

  12. Avatar for Reggie Reggie says:

    being a stand-alone PDA user for years, i hate to admit it, but i think the stand-alone PDAs are already dying. HP is trying to keep it alive with 2 models, while everybody else like Palm, Dell, and Toshiba have either stopped manufacturing or switched to the smartphone bandwagon. i also switched to the smartphone bandwagon when Windows Mobile 5 was introduced and never looked back to the 2 piece option of a phone and a pda combo.

  13. Avatar for Cesar Noel Cesar Noel says:

    I still have my Qool QDA-700 palm based SmartPhone. I’m having a hard time adding applications because it needs to run on Palm OS

  14. Avatar for Fitz Fitz says:

    I think it’s very much dead. Mobile phone manufacturers have successfully integrated PDA functions into their devices thus making stand-alone PDA’s obsolete.

  15. Avatar for Jomark Osabel Jomark Osabel says:

    I was once an avid user of Palm PDAs now I have switched to Nokia E61i, an all in one device.

  16. Avatar for JC John SESE Cuneta JC John SESE Cuneta says:

    Not sure but I think stand-alone PDAs are still better than SmartPhones = memory.

    I’ve seen and talked to my colleagues who have smartphones and used different smartphones for years, they said the only catch is – it’s slow. If you really want a PDA, get a stand-alone. But if you won’t need it that much or rather you just want it as an “add-on”, then get a smartphone.

    It is similar to buying a phone with a 10-megapixels camera. Buy a stand-alone a camera than a celphone, the stand-alone will always be better.

    Second, we’re in the Philippines, and thieves and snatchers is everywhere, even right in our own homes and offices. Why risk losing two or three important functions and/or technologies for your life?

    Finally, people carry at least 2 mobile phones, be it ordinary or smart, then a laptop.

    In that sense, PDA vs. Laptop, I’ll choose Laptop (with Ubuntu on it).

    PDA is still alive, not just to the “masses”, more on for the corporate people.

  17. Avatar for minor minor says:

    me! i use it to play sudoku and watch naruto shippuuden on my way home

  18. Avatar for karla karla says:

    i was able to use one of those palms way back. i stopped using it after a year.

  19. Avatar for animomedia.com animomedia.com says:

    I really don’t have a chance to use any PDA’s, a lot of people encourges me to use one. I don’t why, I just don’t really like PDA.

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