by Dan Briody

From...

INTERACTIVE What do you think about PDA's? They are: Useful productivity enhancers Status symbols for the geek elite Overpriced gadget-of-the-moment The wave of the future View Results

June 29, 1999
Web posted at: 3:39 p.m. EDT (1939 GMT)

(IDG) -- Unless you've been hiding under a rock somewhere, you'd have to agree that PalmPilots are the most popular gadget on the planet. So I suppose that's why I wasn't totally surprised to see an 8-year-old boy waiting for his school bus completely enrapt with a Palm V. But it did occur to me to wonder what this boy would be doing so diligently with this $450 business tool. Checking e-mail? Making appointments? Finding stock quotes?

After further investigation, I learned he was playing games on his father's $449 Palm V. The name of the game was Hardball, a slight -- and I mean slight -- variation on Atari's 20-year-old game called Breakout.

This little incident solidified a theory I'd long suspected but had harbored alone: The PalmPilot is the candy of computers.

Does the Palm really make you a more effective employee? Answer honestly and unemotionally. Now try thinking about IT managers that typically have little to do with procuring Palms but often end up managing them. How much fun is it to keep track of these devices? Lost. Stolen. Broken. Frozen. As if IT departments weren't busy enough, along comes the electronic gadget of the 90s to elevate them to a new level of frustration.

I challenge anyone out there to prove to me that employees are more productive with a PalmPilot than without one. Be honest. Are they accomplishing anything with it that they wouldn't with a notebook computer and daytimer? When on trips, people don't feel that they can leave their computer at home and just rely on a handheld device. Not if they want to keep their job, they don't.

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You may crave these handheld devices, even come to depend on them. But like candy, you're probably better off without them. And I'll bet your company's IT department is better off without them as well.

IT manager's are currently dealing with deluges of requests for Palms and plenty of other cool devices. Like children, one worker bee sees another worker bee with one, and feels like he or she is missing out. Tugging on their boss' sleeve, they whine and whine until they get what they want.

And even worse, employees sneak these devices in the back door, expensing them on departmental budgets and hooking them up during their "free time." But who do you think ends up supporting those little devils when they wreak havoc on your PC's dial-up connections? If you guessed the middle managers in accounting, try again.

And let's not leave out Windows CE handhelds, which are basically PalmPilots, only worse. In WinCE, Microsoft has found a competitor for the 3-year-old PalmPilots, and threw in some bugs to boot.

But let's face it, Palms are cool, aren't they? They look slick, you look important carrying one, and they come in handy during those interminable all-company meetings. Sometimes you just feel like you're getting more done when you whip it out to jot down a quick note, or enter a new phone number.

If you are in the business of looking important, by all means, get a handheld. But if you are in the business of staying in business, you might want to keep an eye on the insurgent devices.

Now, it is true that there are some very useful vertical applications for Palms, and as more developers become familiar with the operating systems, those uses will continue to grow. For example, shipping and delivery companies can use them to track packages and relay information to and from headquarters. Hospitals have used them effectively in wireless networked environments, keeping track of updated patient information. But in those implementations, an IT manager generally has strict control over development, deployment, and maintenance of the devices. They are used as tools, not toys.

But as it stands, the majority of these suckers are used as really expensive notebooks (of the paper variety), and that's nothing that you couldn't accomplish with a simple daytimer and a No. 2 pencil. You may think that's old school, but I'm not as old as you may think. And I love a good gadget when I see one.

So I already know that you love your Palm, you depend on it, you couldn't get through a day without it. But what I want to know is, do you really need it? Write to me and prove that your Palm is worth the hassles it causes the IT department.

Dan Briody is an editor at large for InfoWorld. He can be contacted at briody@infoworld.com.