“Apart from the inevitable wireless internet capability,
particular attention has been drawn to the Microsoft Reader. Based
on something called ClearType display technology, this is viewed as
in important differentiator between the Pocket PC and other PDA
offerings, enhancing the usefulness of the device by allowing
lengthy documents such as business materials, manuals, news
articles, etc to be read with ease. The Pocket PC also doubles as
an entertainment device allowing music, and even video, to be
played through a bundled version of the Windows Media Player.
This is essentially a reworking and repackaging of Windows
CE by Microsoft in an attempt to regain control of the exploding
PDA market which Palm and Symbian have been running away with in
the last few months.”
The competition here for Microsoft is extremely fierce. On the
one hand, it is up against the likes of Palm and Psion/Symbian…
On the other hand, the entry of the mobile telecoms players into
the same general space, who have already largely rejected Windows
CE, presents another major block to Microsoft…”