First, I'd like to thank Robert for his contributions to the list and wish
him happiness with the Newton. I know lots of people who have had Newtons,
and most of them have been happy.
I thought that Robert's assessment of Zoomerdom was a bit unfair, however.
He spoke only of Casio, compared Casio's commitment to that of Apple, noted
Casio's failure to provide a stream of products and upgrades, and advised
that "all should buy a Newton" because of the Zoomer's limited lifespan.
I have a few problems with that line of reasoning:
Casio was only one of several players in the creation of the Zoomer.
Notably absent from Robert's assessment was Geoworks, which has both
upgraded its PDA-oriented offering but has also broadened its focus to
cellphones. Geoworks has done a remarkable job of producing quality
products with significant partners, in a marketplace where it's difficult
to stay alive even if you're Apple, much less if you're a relatively tiny
independent.
Casio is a consumer electronics company; Apple is a computer company. The
nature of product commitment in those two industries differs significantly,
and comparing the two companies is like comparing, well, apples to casios.
One doesn't expect a "platform" with upgrades and backwards compatibility
in the consumer electronics market; you expect a few basic things, like
that the cassette tapes you played last year on a Sony will work this year
on a Panasonic, but beyond that, you aren't making much of a technology or
training investment in consumer electronic devices and so you rely more on
product features and brand loyalty to make your consumer purchasing
decision. In contrast, long-term commitment to a product stream is
something which you expect in the computer industry -- owing mainly to its
roots in mainframe computers with their huge cost and decade's worth of
technology and training investment; with traditional computers, you expect
an upgradable platform and long-term support. One could argue that PDAs are
computers, but the companies which make them (including Apple) aspire to
have them be consumer electronic devices.
One thing that Robert mentioned which I agree with is that Casio (and
Geoworks and the other original Zoomer partners) were largely unsuccessful
at stimulating the interest of independent software vendors. It was
fortunate that Zoomers came with enough built-in software to be useful
without add-on products, but the lack of those products has always been a
bit annoying to me. Now that Hewlett Packard is selling GEOS-based devices,
it'll be interesting to see how many independent software products become
avaialble. They did well with the 95/100/200LX series, and seem to be off
to a good start with the OmniGo 100.
> Thanks to everyone who has helped. This has been a great list.
You're welcome!
> Unfortunately (for Casio and what could have been a great
> platform), most of the knowledgeable contributors have since
> moved on to other platforms also.
Ahem... I wasn't aware of any great exodus of expertise.
But we'll miss you :-).
-- -Brian Smithson brian@grot.com