Fujitsu Siemens Computers bails out of PDA / PNA market

by Darren Murph, posted Aug 11th 2007 at 7:43AM

Leaving so soon, are we? Turns out Fujitsu Siemens Computers is ditching the PDA / PNA market after 2007, which means that those bulky, albeit fashionable Loox handhelds will soon be available only in closeout bins and on your favorite auction site -- and just think, things were lookin' so bright just last year. According to a statement by FSC spokesperson Amy Flécher, the decision to cut the proverbial cord was simply "due to the usual examination of the portfolios," and the firm apparently noticed that "the traditional handheld segment (PDA) [had been shrinking] for years." Essentially, the company felt that smartphones would eventually swallow the "traditional handhelds" of the world, and considering that cranking out smartphones "is not its business at all," the choice seems logical.

Filed under: Cellphones, GPS

Tags: business, Fujitsu, Fujitsu Siemens, FujitsuSiemens, industry, loox, pda, pna, Siemens

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Neutral

Nick K. @ Aug 11th 2007 7:58AM

Yeah, PCs are dying because we have "next-gen consoles." Right.

Neutral

Gil @ Aug 11th 2007 9:08AM

I don't get it. Restaurants everywhere are buying PDAs like crazy to replace old fashion notepads. Most of them are buying Fujitsu-Siemens PDAs

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jimmyfinch @ Aug 11th 2007 9:41AM

What?
Restaurants have a hard enough time just keeping the standard POS system working.

Neutral

Gil @ Aug 11th 2007 2:57PM

Not in Europe. This summer alone I've seen almost every restaurant I go to switch from paper to FJ PDAs

Neutral

cr0ft @ Aug 11th 2007 12:48PM

As a F-S owner I'm sad to hear it, but the fact is that connected devices with 3G or better are where we are headed. There will no doubt still be some pure PDA's for sale, but only for speciality applications.

And let's face it, what difference does it make if we buy a F-S branded HTC device or someone elses branded HTC device? ;)

Neutral

Jeff Lewis @ Aug 12th 2007 2:36PM

Fujitsu-Siemens is sort of right and sort of wrong.

The problem is that people keep confusing what a smartphone actually is. I own a FSC PocketLoox 720. It's an awesome PDA. Big, high res screen. USB host. All the bells and whistles. And I don't use it must anymore.

Why?

Well, I also have an HTC Wizard PPC Phone. And since it also runs Windows Mobile - most of the stuff I ran on the Loox also runs on the Wizard. But I also get phone functionality too. And while the 3.7" VGA screen on the Loox is awesome - most things work just fine on the 2.6" QVGA screen on the Wizard.

Meanwhile, my new Samsung Q1U fills in the larger screen/higher resolution needs much better than the Loox does.

So, technically, yes - a smartphone replaced my PDA - but ONLY because the smartphone was a phone version OF my PDA.

But I also have an iMate SP3i smartphone - and it does NOT replace the Loox. The lack of touchscreen, low resolution and the clumsiness of using the system through a number keypad exclusively made it really only useful for a small subset of functions.

So, really - PDAs aren't disappearing - they're merging with phones to be come PDA/Phones. If you want to call that a Smartphone (which it is, to be honest), that's fine - but it misrepresents the reality of the situation because most people still see a smartphone as a regular phone with some PIM functions and a camera thrown in.

PS: FSC's refusal to offer system upgrades didn't help either. My Loox 720 is WM4 and cost me $850. I really didn't feel like spending $500+ to get a new PDA to get a new OS. It also didn't help that FSC chose not to market into North America at all - forcing me to buy mine through a reseller in Europe.