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T-Mobile Catches Windows Mobile FeverT-Mobile's MDA is the latest hybrid device based on Windows Mobile 5, a handheld OS that's clearly gaining momentum.Yardena Arar, PC World
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As a longtime Palm aficionado it pains me to admit this, but it must be said: Microsoft's Windows Mobile operating system is gaining serious ground in the handheld wars, especially the skirmishes involving PDA/phone hybrids.
I found this conclusion inescapable as I surveyed my desk recently: Stacked up awaiting inspection were two Windows Mobile- based devices from T-Mobile (the MDA Pocket PC and the SDA Smartphone) and Sprint Nextel's Windows Mobile-based PPC-6700, a PDA/ phone hybrid that was reviewed a few months back by our editor-in- chief, Harry McCracken. And those were just the ones on hand: In the same time frame a company called i-Mate stopped by just to show me preproduction versions of three Windows Mobile-based handhelds.
All this, less than a month after Palm (the company, not the OS) launched its first Windows Mobile smart phone, the Treo 700w for Verizon Wireless, which I reviewed in January.
In contrast, I haven't seen a new Palm OS device in weeks-- months, even. To quote Buffalo Springfield (okay, I know I'm showing my age), somethin's happenin' here--and it isn't the Palm OS.
All This and Wi-Fi Too
Not only is Windows Mobile popping up more often, but the devices based on it are offering more features while coming down in price. I base this conclusion on a test drive of the T-Mobile MDA, which looks like the PPC-6700's first cousin--not surprising since both are made by HTC, a Taiwanese firm that designs a lot of Windows Mobile devices for various companies. Both smart phones have big screens and slide-out QWERTY keyboards. With the keyboard concealed, both are designed to be used in portrait mode (the display is taller than it is wide); with the keyboard out, the display automatically shifts to landscape mode. Both have built-in 1.3-megapixel cameras, MiniSD slots, and Wi-Fi.
That's not to...