But the lines between the devices are blurring. Palm has more than 120,000 application developers, while a growing number of products are being developed or scaled for PocketPCs. Palm has introduced color screens, and PocketPC devices are becoming more efficient. The iPaq is worth a look. Even businesses that recommend best-choice devices have to contend with variations among their employees.
Some people have terrible handwriting that stumps even Palm's Graffiti software.
Others, like Mike Taliaferro, executive VP at Calabasas, Calif., Countrywide Home Loan Inc. and an ex-pro football player, don't like small keys and keyboards. I've got big hands. Still others hate the small displays of Wireless Application Protocol-based phones. At Buyproduce Inc. in Irvine, Calif., which manages a produce-delivery supply chain with 1,300 subscribers of mostly rural sellers and urban buyers, participants are wirelessly sent up to 17 event alerts as orders make their way to their destination. To accommodate these alerts, urban customers are encouraged to use the Compaq iPaq, because it's optimized for Windows, has slots for digital camera and wireless modem attachments, and the iPaq H3650 has a screen that adjusts to changing light conditions.