The new driving force in PDAs? Email.

I don't know if I would categorize it as new, but according to this article, email is the driving force in new PDA sales. As the hardware improves as does the wireless network speeds, it makes more and more sense to have a portable device that allows you to check email. It is both a blessing and a curse in that you now can be accessed anywhere (yay!), and you can now be accessed... anywhere (boo!).

While I was on a recent ski vacation I very much enjoyed being able to check the web and my emails while away - but it also reduced the relaxation factor of the vacation having to deal with work issues while I was supposed to be doing nothing (or at least having fun).

The most obvious thing to address - and companies already are - is the threat of viruses and spam to these mobile devices. Especially when you are paying a premium price for the data you download to these devices - you don't want to waste that on spam or get a virus. The key to that is handling it upstream on the server so that it never gets delivered to the handheld (and therefore doesn't waste that precious bandwidth).
But that is easier said than done.

Email on PDAs and phones (which are essentially merging into the same thing these days) has been around for a few years now, but it is currently accelerating at a rate where enough people are starting to use it where it is going to be standard fairly soon.

Perhaps it is time to also make a mobile version of Spamblogging? Anyone interested in such a thing?

Posted by Eric at May 6, 2005 09:19 AM | TrackBack