Census employee discusses the HTC smartphone deployment

While there was certainly celebrating to be done in Taipei, Redmond, and Melbourne, FL upon the Census Bureau's announcement that Harris Corp. had won a contract to supply its pollsters with half a million Windows Mobile-powered HTC smartphones, some regular taxpayers were likely left wondering why it was necessary to add $600 million to a 2010 census budget that already tops $11 billion. Luckily for the majority of us who were kept out of the loop during this decision-making process, Computerworld has an interview with the Bureau's field data collection project manager, Edwin B. Wagner Jr., who sheds a little bit of light (though not much) on the rationale behind equipping data collectors, who already sport Blackberries, with yet another device. Wagner claims that the smartphones will save the Bureau both time (keeping workers abreast of mailed-in returns so they don't go on unnecessary home visits) and money (due to the amount of paper saved, although last time we checked, you could get a whole ream of the white stuff for less than the lowest-end HTC product), along with providing more accurate census results by reducing the number of times data needs to be manually transferred. He also goes into a bit of detail (though again, not much) on why they went with WinMo over other OSes, and hints that the phones may be enabled for limited voice use after all, so hit the Read link for the full scoop.

[Joe Kenkel @ Apr 6th 2006 7:10PM]

Sweet phone. Will it be available for common use?

[DJ @ Apr 6th 2006 7:22PM]

#1 - It's been available for months from Cingular as the 8125 and others under different names or numbers. List price from Cingular is $349 - $50 rebate, but there have been promos that have dropped the price to $199.

[DJ @ Apr 6th 2006 7:29PM]

I just realized something else. I can buy a SINGLE unit from Cingular for $200. Harris is buying 500,000 units, so I'm guessing they're paying less than $200 esch, less than $150 each, and even less than $100 each. At $100 each, that's only $50 million. Where's the other $550 million going???

[Dermot81 @ Apr 6th 2006 7:47PM]

Too bad by 2010, there will be no more smartphone, only UMPC-phone.

[Vesh @ Apr 6th 2006 8:15PM]

#3, DJ - I was wondering the same thing. Granted, the units will supposedly be "customized" so that could raise costs somewhat when specialized software is accounted for, not to mention costs for data plans etc. Still, the $600 million price tag seems high.

Extra funds to be funneled to Area 51....?

[applesucksLeo @ Apr 6th 2006 8:20PM]

APRIL 06, 2006 (COMPUTERWORLD) - The U.S. Census Bureau signed a contract this week with Harris Corp. for a $600 million project to automate data collection in the 2010 census (see "Census Bureau to deploy a half-million wireless handhelds"). About 500,000 customized pocket-sized computers from High Tech Computer Corp. in Taiwan will be deployed to census takers who go door-to-door.They are using Windows Mobile 5.0 SmartPhones...What ?! They aren`t using Apple`s Fig-Newton ?!

[Craig @ Apr 6th 2006 9:09PM]

The other costs are most likely (a) custom software development and deployment, and (b) ongoing technical support.

I'd love to see an ROI analysis on this effort once it's completed...my hunch is that NO handheld can be justified on ROI.

So much for Republicans leading us to a smaller government. Feh.

[SHoe @ Apr 6th 2006 9:33PM]

If they already have Blackberrys - which are perfectly capable of running custom software, have keyboards for data entry, meet DOD level of standards for secure wireless data transmition, and have a proven level of reliability that goes beyond win-mob (when was the last time you saw a Blackberry crash? - not saying it doesn't happen - but it rarely happens), then why exactly to they need to all have expensive Win Mob devices? And no - i don't like blackberrys but they are there and are perfectly functional for the task at hand, though admittedly they may not be the most ergonomical for this task.
Also Win Mob will probably be experiencing it's fair share of viruses and security issues by 2010 as well, just like it's desktop cousin.

I smell stupid.

[DJ @ Apr 6th 2006 10:31PM]

#8- Your point about Blackberry viruses is true, there hasn't been one to date. It's also my understanding that Blackberry's are extremely difficult to hack given the lack of open source code. Just think, you wouldn't necessarily need a virus on the WinMob5 devices to cause a huge problem, just hack in and create entire new neighborhoods and government subsidies for them.....

[Ken @ Apr 7th 2006 3:29AM]

There is only one explanation for anything that happens under this administration...helping their allies rob the taxpayers blind, providing a sizable share is kicked back to support the coup.

[lou @ Apr 7th 2006 10:18AM]

While not a big fan of the Bushies, I think moving to WM5 will have a big positive effect on the bottom line. No more extreme BES licensing fees.

[Jonna @ Apr 7th 2006 10:19AM]

Picture is wrong, Sprint has won the Census contract not cingulair

[Alex @ Apr 12th 2006 10:34AM]

isn't cingulair an antihistamine?