Microsoft opens Pocket PC to new designs in major overhaul

MarketWatch: Wireless, June 26, 2003

Microsoft Corp will today unveil the latest version of its PDA software platform with the backing of a host of OEM partners. Pocket PC (PPC) 2003 and its Phone Edition sibling feature numerous usability and configuration enhancements, with a strong emphasis on the needs of wireless users.

The OS has also received a name change. Pocket PC 2003, as Microsoft described the updated version of its PDA platform to ComputerWire prior to its official launch, will henceforth be known as Windows Mobile software 2003 for Pocket PCs.

Chris Hill, product development manager for Pocket PC with Microsoft said the company had possibly made PPC too much of a walled garden in previous editions, stifling innovation, and hopes to rectify that situation with the new release.

"Looking back we created a very tight definition of Pocket PC. Today our OEMs say they're really comfortable where we are but they want to make their own [idea of a] Pocket PC with the ability to customize and differentiate," he said.

As part of this strategy, Microsoft has decided to free up some of the previous design constraints for PPC devices. These include the freedom, for the first time, to support much smaller displays than was previously possible, with 2.8 inch quarter VGA now possible.

Microsoft has also opened the way for Qwerty thumbpads, along the lines of those used in Research In Motion's BlackBerrys, to be employed in PPC devices. "We've done a lot of work on keyboard navigation so that users can leave the stylus in the device when using the keyboard," said Hill.

Both developments have been added with compact, phone-like devices, based on the Phone Edition variant of PPC 2003 devices in mind, a market segment Microsoft expects to grow rapidly, and will help to put to rest memories of the relative failure of the PPC 2002 Phone Edition incarnation.

The first such PPC Phone Edition, which will ship this month, comes from Hitachi. The as yet unseen device features a built-in digital camera and CDMA wireless wide area network access (WWAN) and will initially be available in the US, although Hill said a GSM/GPRS version is expected to follow.

Hong Kong-based original design manufacturer (ODM) Legend Group is said to be developing a PPC with a novel "flip-up" keypad design, although no further details are currently available, while Hill said clamshell designs will also feature in time.

Taiwanese ODM High Tech Computer (HTC) Corp will ship an updated PPC 2003/ARM4 version of its Falcon (aka Spaceneedle, Wallaby) PPC Phone Edition design, as sold by AT&T, mm02 and T-Mobile, before the end of June.

PPC 2003 Phone Edition devices will remain distinct from their Windows Smartphone cousins by continuing to use touch screens.

Hewlett-Packard and Dell are among the established OEMs with more conventional PPC 2003 models at the ready for the launch. They will be joined by new licensees, including JVC, Panasonic (Matsushita) and Gateway.

Wireless features take center stage among Microsoft's new developments in PPC 2003. The company has made considerable efforts to make configuration and use of wireless networks as straightforward as possible, with a new connection manager application.

This covers a broad range of connectivity options, including different radio standards, such as mobile operator networks, wireless LAN and Bluetooth, along with virtual private network (VPN; the platform also features a new VPN client) and proxy settings.

The application borrows from the "zero configuration" WLAN approach Microsoft pioneered in Windows XP. The latest 802.1x WLAN security standard has also been implemented in the platform.

"In the past we did a pretty poor job of making Pocket PC easy to set up and use," said Hill. "Bluetooth, [particularly], has been something of a scary beast. A lot of devices shipping over the last year have been too hard to set up."

Improved messaging also features strongly with SMS text and integration of multimedia messages (MMS) clients with the Pocket Outlook email inbox now possible. Native support is also available for the forthcoming Exchange Server 2003.

One of the few technology down points appears to be PPC 2003's built-in web browser. While the software now renders XHTML, providing better support for web services, it does not yet provide the zero horizontal scrolling that makes Opera Software's rival browser so useful on Symbian-based devices.

Multimedia enhancements also figure strongly in PPC 2003's makeup. Updates include an updated Windows Media Player (version 9), support for midi ringtones and separate volume controls for voice and data functions, the latter apparently among the enhancements most requested by OEMs.

Battery life in PPC 2003 has been improved by running applications in the background without turning on the display when not in use.

Another novelty is a "pendant" option that allows components of the device, for example the phone dialler, to be worn around the neck while the PDA stays in the user's pocket.

PPC 2003 is, naturally, based on the latest Windows CE.NET 4.2 with the option of building in the .NET Compact Framework web services runtime environment. Microsoft said this has made the platform better performing and more stable, as well as allowing more freedom to innovate due the closer relationship between PPC 2003 and the rest of the Windows family of operating systems. This allows, for example, OEMs to easily include modules such as a USB host into their devices.