The Palm Operating System (OS) has always been the OS of choice when it comes to PDAs. However, Mr. Bill Gate would never let anyone dominate any field of computing without any fight from Microsoft. So Microsoft had introduced Microsoft Mobile OS (Pocket PC), based on the Microsoft Windows OS, to compete with the traditional Palm OS. Manufacturers of PDAs now had another reason to produce more PDAs and people at large were more confused as to which OS should be their choice when purchasing PDA.

For those who are not yet familiar with the OS for PDAs, lets take a look at both OSes and see if the information presented here can help you make decision as to which class of PDA would be your choice, if you havent already purchased one.

Personally, I dont think Palm OS-based PDA is better than Pocket PC-based PDA or vice versa. Both have their own strength and weaknesses. So the final choice, I guess is of personal preferences and budget eventhough to some people depends on how much they hate Mr Billl Gate…(pun intended).

Price Palm OS PDAs tend to be cheaper than Pocket PC PDAs. Palm OS devices often have somewhat slower processors and less memory. But that doesn’t mean they’re slow, rather the Palm OS is a highly optimized OS that doesn’t need much horsepower to run compared to Pocket PC. The Pocket PC OS is based on MS Windows, so naturally it’s resource-hungry, and it needs all that processor speed and memory to run speedily….(sound familiar?)

Integration to Windows Application This is a strong selling point for Microsoft to push for its Pocket PC OS for PDAs. Since a lot of people are using Microsoft Office either at work or at home, it is only natural for these people to be able to work on the same base application when working with their PDA. Users can import and export documents created with Microsoft Office applications and work on these documents on this documents on their PDAs…out of box. However, some functionality or document formatting may be lost due to limited functionality supported by the mobile version of Microsoft Office application for PDAs. While Palm OS doesn’t have built in support for Word or Excel, there are some great 3rd party software to allow you to work on these Office documents on the PDAs.

Contact management, calendaring and to-do lists Both OSes handle these basic PDA functions quite well. If this is the main reason you’re buying a PDA, then get a Palm OS model. Some of them are small, cheap and great choice as a PIM tool. Most people still find Palm OS PDAs the best for these tasks because it takes fewer clicks to get to the info you need.

Size and weight Generally Palm OS based PDAs are smaller and lighter than Pocket PCs however this fact is becoming less concern as Pocket PC devices are getting smaller due to market trend.

Ease of use and simplicity Palm OS is clear winner here. Palm OS interface is very intuitive and let you master the functions in no time. Pocket PC OS, though powerful, generally requires a longer lurning curve to master.

Battery life This is very subjective. It all depends how the device is used and what kind of features it has. Generally though, with all parameters being equal, many reviewers have concluded that Palm OS PDAs runs longer than Pocket PC PDAs.

Integration with Outlook Microsoft has an unfair advantage in this department for obvious reason, but that is expected for both Outlook and Pocket PC OS are from Microsoft. Palm OS requires third party software, for example Pocket Mirror, to let users synchronize the Palm PDAs with Outlook.

Handwriting recognition Both OS handles this function quite well. Depending on models, both Palm OS and Pocket PC PDAs , may feature Graffiti, Graffiti2 or other recognition capabilty methods.

Music, MP3 and multimedia Both OS handle these features quite well. owever if you are into watching movie on the PDAs, a high end Pocket PC device is the way to go.

Connection to Internet Devices based on both OSes can handle internet connection via modem dial up.

Multitasking Microsoft has upper hand here. You can open multiple applications at one time on Pocket PCs but that requires more resources to run fast enough. Howeve only one application can appear at any one time on the screen.

Screens quality Generally Pocket PC devices offer better screen resolutions but Palm OS based PDAs are cathing up wuite well here due to high demand for multimedia applications running on PDAs.

Third party software Microsoft has to say sorry here. Palm was the pioneer in terms of PDA and has captured more than 70% worldwide market share for PDAs. Naturally it offers better choice when it comes to avaialbility of third party software for PDAs.

Conclusion

Like I said, which one is preferred OS really depends on individuals. However, generally we can conclude that Palm based PDAs are cheaper and easier to use. Pocket PC PDAs on the other hand has better integration to Office applications so if you want Windows familiarity on your PDAs, then Pocket PC is the choice.

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