Comments (3)

By leo.flor, August 19, 2010 09:49

The first product team I worked on at Microsoft was in the Mobile Electronics Group.  I was a Software Tester for Microsoft Pocket PCs which was trailing in the marketplace at the time to Palm.  I was like a kid in a candy store coming in to work every day, I have loved little electronic gadgets my whole life.

Me “getting reps” on a Nintendo Gameboy (reference to Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell)

The Pocket PCs were very functional, I liked how it synced with Outlook; Office Documents like Excel and Word were not only viewable but editable.  Although there were not a lot of websites formatted to the small screens of the PDA web browsers, you could surf with them.  My favorite app for it was Pocket Streets.  In a time before Google Maps, it was like having Mapquest on you which was handy living in a new city.

No matter what though, the electronic organizer market would not breakthrough to everyday consumers until they were combined with cell phones (they seemed to figure this out right away in Japan).  Ahh the smartphone, what would we do without you.  If today’s everyday business world was the old wild west, your smartphone would be your gun.  Like guns, different ones are suited to different people.  Make sure you pick a good one for you.