Thursday, March 23, 2006

What is it all about?

What is it all about? Pocket PCs, Pocket PCs, Pocket PCs and Smartphones, all of them running Windows Mobile from Microsoft. This blog will talk about hardware and software. There isn’t a day without new software being released or a device manufacturer leaking pictures of new devices.

Let’s start with software. Most of the devices sold locally are running Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition and they are not upgradeable to Windows Mobile 5. Yeah, Windows Mobile 5 (WM5) is the latest OS for Pocket PCs and Smartphones released by Microsoft. The biggest thing about Windows Mobile 5 is persistent storage. What’s that? Pocket PCs do not have hard drives, so they store data in ROM and they use RAM to run applications. Prior to WM5, ROM was used mainly by the OS itself and the remaining space, not a lot, was allocated to the user. If you run out of battery, you also lose your data unless you stored them on a SD card. WM5 fixes that. With persistent storage, you never lose anything.

Let’s talk about hardware. Most of the device manufacturers are from Asian countries and the market leader is HTC, a company based in Taiwan. They design and build devices that they sell to, mostly, carriers around the world. You will never find a device branded HTC. You probably saw or heard of Qtek and Imate. You also noticed that they look alike. They are both from HTC. Qtek is the European make and Imate is found mostly in the UK and US. They are also available in Mauritius. But remember, these models are, by my standard, old.

That’s it for now.

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