



Microsoft's primary goal at the time was to do one thing: beat Palm. And at the time Pocket PC was introduced, Microsoft had the keys it needed for success. From music to books and games to maps and location service, the Pocket PC platform had it all, and the new devices, particularly the iPAQ, were like nothing else on the market. Microsoft was so focused on taking on Palm, however, that the company couldn't figure out how to change the message that Palm was so successfully telling the market. Even if the strategy was fundamentally correct, the short term tactics were ineffective. The net result was a team that went through countless re-organizations and was never able to drive platform forward with the innovation it needed -- as we all know, later revs of Window Mobile were mostly tweaks on the original platform.



Pocket PCs were the first devices that could serve as a mobile office with email and Office applications, yet also offer games, music, and movies.

Pocket PC may be no more, but there were some important lessons learned from what Microsoft attempted to do. The platform and hardware were a leap forward. With the inclusion of Windows Media Player and tight integration with the desktop, Pocket PC began to blur the lines of business and consumer functionality -- these were the first devices that could serve as a mobile office with email and Office applications, yet also offer games, music, and movies. Pocket PC was also the first platform to have a fully integrated e-book architecture, called Microsoft Reader. Sadly, Microsoft's total focus on Palm and the business market combined with later efforts to take on RIM and the BlackBerry meant that these features were ignored and totally shunned from most of the marketing. It wasn't until 2007 when Apple introduced the iPhone that attention refocused to the mass market consumer and not just the business market.The world has moved from disconnected PDAs to connected phones and other devices, and most of the companies that showcased devices in New York have also moved on. HP's Jornada line died when the company merged with Compaq, and although HP still markets several Windows Phone devices under the iPAQ brand, the company is no longer considered an innovator in the space. After several other product introductions, Casio also gave up and is now just another footnote in the mobile market. And Microsoft is rebooting its mobile efforts entirely with Windows Phone 7 and Kin -- this time not in response to Palm, but to Apple. We'll see if the company can apply the lessons of the past 10 years to the next 10.Michael Gartenberg is a partner at Altimeter Group. His weblog can be found at gartenblog.net. Contact him at gartenberg AT gmail DOT com. Views expressed here are his own.