We've been seeing stories in many circles that PDA shipments are shrinking, and that the smartphone rules the roost. Can PDA makers do anything to reverse the trend?

A consistent theme among many people in PDA forums around Palm OS based PDAs are not making the effort to cater to the need for more useful features (for example, there is only one current PDA model that includes Wifi built in). There is another group of users who have for many model releases asked manufacturers to just design a good looking product, and not Star Trek’s next tricorder (read: every new iPaq). For one reason or another, PDA device makers, who were once at the top of the capability chain, now seem to have taken good design and product placement principals and thrown them out the window. What happened to end-users in the past four to six years that has made what once worked, now dated and needing a new tank of fresh air? Products that once defined a genre have now been overtaken by trendier products. What is palmOne, HP, and other PDA manufacturers going to do about this?

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All I am asking is that PDA makers stay in the game by changing the way business is done. Sure, no one wants to be like Sony and release a dozen models per year at low profit margins, knowing many are going to fail; but you can’t say that Sony didn’t try. Companies like HP and palmOne need to consider a tri-annual release schedule, not bi-annual. And in palmOne’s case, it would be nice if they got over the desire to extend product lifecycles beyond 18 months. This will keep the competition on its toes and also allow for technology to move more.