Jump to content

Pocket PC 2000

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is an old revision of this page, as edited by FreeMediaKid! (talk | contribs) at 21:58, 25 September 2021 (Added Hardware and Reception sections, slightly expanded the infobox.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Pocket PC 2000
Version of the Windows Mobile operating system
Today screen of Pocket PC 2000
DeveloperMicrosoft Corporation
Source modelClosed source
Released to
manufacturing		April 19, 2000; 25 years ago (2000-04-19)
Platforms
Kernel typeHybrid (Windows CE)
LicenseProprietary commercial software
Preceded byPalm-size PC
Succeeded byPocket PC 2002
Official websitewww.microsoft.com/mobile/pocketpc
Support status
Unsupported as of September 10, 2007

Pocket PC 2000 (marketed as Pocket PC and originally codenamed "Rapier"[1]) is the first member of the Windows Mobile family of mobile operating systems that was released on April 19, 2000, and was based on Windows CE 3.0. It was the debut of what was later dubbed the Windows Mobile operating system, and meant to be a successor to the operating system aboard Palm-size PCs. Backwards compatibility was retained with such Palm-size PC applications. Pocket PC 2000 was intended mainly for Pocket PC devices, however several Palm-size PC devices had the ability to be updated also. Further, several Pocket PC 2000 phones were released, however Microsoft's "Smartphone" hardware platform was not yet created. The only resolution supported by this release was 240 x 320 (QVGA). Removable storage card formats that were supported were CompactFlash and MultiMediaCard. At this time Pocket PC devices had not been standardized with a specific CPU architecture. As a result, Pocket PC 2000 was released on multiple CPU architectures; SH-3, MIPS, and ARM. Infrared (IR) File beaming capability was among the original hardware features.

Pocket PC 2000 aesthetically resembled Windows 98, Windows Me, and Windows 2000. Pocket PC 2000 is unsupported as of September 10, 2007.

This initial release had multiple built-in applications,[2] many of them similarly branded to match their desktop counterparts, such as Microsoft Reader, Microsoft Money, Pocket Internet Explorer, and Windows Media Player. A version of Microsoft Office called Pocket Office was also bundled and included Pocket Word, Pocket Excel and Pocket Outlook. Notes, a note-taking app saw its first release and would be supported by most later versions of Windows Mobile. Intelligent character recognition support allowed Notes to distinguish styles of handwriting to be learned by the OS during processing to improve accuracy and recognition levels.

History

Microsoft long knew of the importance and potential of mobile computers, and in the 1990s had made previous attempts to capture the market. It released in 1993 Windows for Pen Computing, a software used to add pen computing functions to mobile computers running Windows 3.1. The software's potential for success was hampered by its ponderous base code and the fact that handwriting recognition technology at the time had practical limitations. Microsoft then sought to develop a device called WinPad, which would have been used to wirelessly access and synchronize data between it and desktop machines, as well as other WinPads, but its operating system's large consumption of resources caused the company to redesign as Microsoft at Work, an embedded operating system for office machines, with similar synchronization functions. However, its delayed, costly development and device manufacturers' subsequently abandoning it led to the project's cancellation. During that time, Microsoft also began work on a project to develop a device used to communicate with paging systems, and its operating system was to be used in set-top boxes, but that project proved to be too ambitious and thus folded in 1995.[3]

The teams of the two cancelled projects were consolidated in 1995, and Microsoft hoped to create a mobile device that ran on the Windows NT kernel. It decided to use its new kernel, Windows CE, after realizing that Windows NT was too bulky to fit on a device. This kernel debuted in Microsoft's "Handheld PC", and reappeared in the company's Palm-size PC,[4] both of which were criticized for their slow performance, short battery life, and graphical user interface. With these devices, Microsoft had only ten percent of the personal digital assistant (PDA) market share, whereas its rival, Palm, Inc., had over half of it.[3]

Microsoft reapproached Windows CE's design in the development of its third PDA. Its desktop user interface was replaced with one more suited for mobile devices, more applications came preinstalled, and the company more firmly defined and extended both the hardware and software specifications to ensure software compatibility.[3] Windows CE 3.0 became the operating system for Microsoft's next PDA and the first member of the Windows Mobile family, Pocket PC, and it was launched on April 19, 2000.[5] To distinguish it from its successors, this version is now referred to as Pocket PC 2000.[6]

Hardware

Most Pocket PC 2000 devices shipped with 32 MB of random access memory (RAM) and a few had an expansion slot for memory cards. These slots supported PC cards and those for mobile devices, such as the CompactFlash.[7] The memory itself is used to store both files and working data, and is allocated to either of them both automatically and manually.[8] There was no standard for which instruction set architecture to use, but all devices used either MIPS, SH-3, or StrongARM processors.[9] The processors ran with top speeds ranging from 131 to 206 MHz.[10]

Reception

CNET compared Pocket PC 2000 and Palm OS devices and considered the latter to be its favorite personal digital assistant, scoring it 8 points out of 10—one point higher than Pocket PC—because of its simple interface, stability, and lower price. It praised Pocket PC's improved user interface, bundled applications and ability to continuously synchronize mobile and desktop computer data, but criticized its inconsistent character recognition system. It concluded that Pocket PC was best suited for users who liked Windows and were unconcerned about budget.[11] InfoWorld viewed the operating system as an excellent platform for application developers, especially those writing in C++, praising the ease of development and portability of Windows applications, as well as support for networking and database access, although criticizing the lack of scripting in JScript and VBScript and decisions by hardware manufacturers such as to limit the devices to one expansion slot, not design their USB ports for expandability, and an underpowered infrared. It wrote that Pocket PC was a viable alternative to laptops for its price.[12]

Within ten months, one million devices running Pocket PC 2000 were shipped. In May 2001, the figure was 1.25 million. NPD Intelect reported that in the US, the devices made for 26 percent of sales priced at $350 or higher, but only 10 percent of sales overall, and that Palm OS devices filled almost all of the rest of the market share.[13] The best-selling model series was Compaq's iPAQ, which had dominated the market since its debut in 2000.[14] The operating system's successor, Pocket PC 2002, was released in October 2001.[15]

References

  1. ^ De Herrera, Chris. Windows CE/Windows Mobile Versions. pocketpcfaq.com. Retrieved September 6, 2007.
  2. ^ De Herrera, Chris. More Than a PDA! Archived August 21, 2008, at the Wayback Machine. Pocket PC Magazine. Retrieved September 14, 2007.
  3. ^ a b c Boudreau, Kevin J. (June 2006). How open should an open system be? Essays on Mobile Computing (PDF) (Thesis). Massachusetts Institute of Technology. pp. 59–64. hdl:1721.1/37110. Retrieved September 23, 2021.
  4. ^ McPherson 2000, p. 10.
  5. ^ Smrček, Jakub (March 31, 2011). "OS Windows Mobile/Phone: strmá cesta historií" [OS Windows Mobile/Phone: a steep journey through history]. CNews.cz (in Czech). Retrieved September 23, 2021.
  6. ^ McPherson, Frank (2003). How to Do Everything with Your Pocket PC (Third ed.). Osborne/McGraw-Hill. p. 11. ISBN 0-07-222979-9. Retrieved September 23, 2021.
  7. ^ McPherson 2000, p. 567.
  8. ^ McPherson 2000, p. 69.
  9. ^ Harbour, Jonathan S. (November 2011). Sams Teach Yourself Windows Phone 7 Game Programming in 24 Hours. Sams Publishing. p. 15. ISBN 978-0-672-33554-9. Retrieved September 25, 2021.
  10. ^ McPherson, Frank (2002). How To Do Everything With Your Pocket PC (Second ed.). Osborne/McGraw-Hill. p. 343. ISBN 0-07-219414-6. Retrieved September 25, 2021.
  11. ^ Nelson, Sondra (June 1, 2000). "CNET Software Head-to-Head: Pocket PC vs. Palm OS". CNET. Archived from the original on June 21, 2000. Retrieved September 25, 2021.
  12. ^ Yager, Tom (June 26, 2000). "Putting the development squeeze on the Pocket PC". InfoWorld. Vol. 22, no. 26. pp. 99–100. Retrieved September 25, 2021.
  13. ^ "Pocket PC sales: 1 million and counting". ZDNet. May 22, 2001. Archived from the original on September 25, 2021. Retrieved September 25, 2021.
  14. ^ Milroy, Steve; Cox, Ken; DotThatCom.com; Safford, Doug; Barker, Laura; Kalani, Amit; Meng Lee, Wei (2002). .NET Mobile Web Developer's Guide. Syngress. pp. 11–12. ISBN 1-928994-56-3. Retrieved September 25, 2021.
  15. ^ Swoyer, Stephen (October 8, 2001). "PocketPC 2002 Makes its Debut". Redmond Magazine. Retrieved September 25, 2021.

Further reading

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pocket_PC_2000&oldid=1046477537"