PDA's are Back - Best Buy

[BLUEVOODU]

PDAs - Personal Data Assistants went out a long time ago.  Palm OS devices (like the M500), Palm Treo - Phone based, HP had some... as well as other devices.   The Black Berry and Palm Treo really merged the 2 devices well and the you can thank them for the smart phones you carry today.

While at Best Buy today, I saw a Symbol PDA.  They are back... and it was a new PDA  Symbol devices are used for Scanning in a manufacturing / inventory setting.   There was a scanner attached... but it was very much a PDA in the old school way.


I think PDAs were WAY WAY ahead of their time and the hard ware just wasn't there to do what they needed them to do.   The scan guns used in manufacturing plants perform 5250 emulation and can do a lot... but they still are used for 1 function... scanning in parts / inventory.  Personally, I think they will eventually come back and the concept of the PDA will return... in the form of super small form factor laptops that are powerful enough to do everything.... with wireless connections to monitors (which already exists), wifi... basically only wired for a charger.   While the old PDA is absorbed into the current version of smart phones... I Think we will continue to see a merging of smart phones and laptops... until the line completely blurs.

This trend has been very apparent over the last 5-8 years... and time will tell if the trend will continue.  Post up your comments / thoughts.

[targetrasp]

this needs to happen.

In a business environment where the line level employee is close to minimum wage, where byod isn't an option, and / or supplying everyone with smart phones isn't feasable - the only economical option is a tablet. In my experience in a faster paced environment a tablet is often times just too big. Something pocket sized that cheaper than a phone but has scanning, data entry, wifi, can run apps and can take pictures would be perfect. 

[BLUEVOODU]

Exactly. 

Tablets are way too big, thin, easy to drop / don't fit the hand well for most applications.  I'm surprised it took this long for the style of device to resurge.  Seeing it was a huge blast from the past.  The screen looked very nice... design of the device was slick.  It was not super thin - didn't appear to be of "rugged" style... but probably thick enough to hold the small 2D scanner (don't think Best Buy uses 3D labels).

This should've advanced enough tech wise to be able to handle major applications.    Add wireless keyboard and mouse features... AND wireless monitor support... and make this into a portable gaming rig LOL..

This is the exact one I believe:
TC51/TC56 Touch Computer Series  - Zebra.com

I forgot Zebra bought out Symbol