5 reasons your next PC might be a phone

Listen up. Your next PC may be . . . a phone.

Alright, so people have been saying that for years. What's changed?

Everything.

The latest phones are faster, smaller and more versatile than ever. A 2004 survey of Pocket PC owners by software developer Spb, found that 85% of users rely on their phone as an organizer. More than half use it to browse the Internet and check e-mail. Interestingly, about a third of Pocket PC owners use their devices for GPS navigation, and slightly less than that manage their personal finances with it.

In other words, people in the know are already harnessing the computing power of these gadgets.

Speaking of Pocket PCs, I just bought a PPC-6700 from Sprint. I've been reviewing PDAs for years, and this gadget is probably the closest thing I've ever seen to what futurists like to call a "convergence" device. It runs on Windows Mobile 5.0, the latest operating system for the Pocket PC. And for the first time since I can remember, I feel completely comfortable leaving my laptop at home, in certain instances.

First, though, a reality check. I asked Richard Ford, an associate professor at the Florida Institute of Technology if the phone would ever replace the PC. Probably not, he said. "However, I do see the phone carrying a much larger mobile load in the future, allowing customers to carry out actions that were traditionally associated with a laptop," he added.

Here are five reasons why the phone trumps the PC:

1.	It's lighter. PC workstations aren't meant to be schlepped around and, of course, Laptops are a lot lighter, but if you are constantly on the go, the PDA phone outshines them all. "For example, a real estate developer who is constantly at project sites, would be better off using a PDA," says Theo Ivanov, the marketing director for Aplus.Net, an Internet service provider which works with small businesses. The latest phones are also Wi-Fi-enabled, so they can connect to the Internet at high speeds without wires. My Sprint phone even offers a service called Evolution Data Optimized (EV-DO) a mobile broadband capability that can connect at DSL speeds.
2.	It's a better travel companion. Been through an airport security checkpoint recently? Tried to use your laptop in an economy-class seat? Then you know that even the smallest portable PCs can be very unwieldy at times. The Transportation Security Administration employees make you put your portable PC through the conveyor belt — and then turn it on, for some mysterious reason. A Pocket PC weighs next to nothing (mine weighs just over six ounces) and the newest phone PDAs have bright screens that are easy to read in a darkened aircraft cabin. My PPC-6700 even has a backlit keyboard, so that I can type while everyone else is sleeping.
3.	It can handle the basics. And I don't mean e-mail and phone calls. That's a given. I mean basic computing functions. Rich Tehrani, president of electronic publisher TMC and a convergence device expert, says some people are using phones as their primary computing device. (There is surprisingly much you can do on one of these gadgets, like compose a Microsoft Word or Microsoft Excel document. Windows Mobile 5.0 also uses something called persistent memory, which retains information even when your battery is depleted.) But, he cautions, don't expect too much from your phone. "You won't be able to appreciate PowerPoint, Excel or complex Microsoft Word documents (on a phone)," he says.
4.	It plays well with other technologies. The latest phones are Bluetooth-enabled, so you can communicate device-to-device without wires. But there's more, and I discovered it when I started using my Pocket PC with a Windows 2003 server. The phone interacts with servers using a nifty feature called "direct push," which lets you keep everything from your calendar, and contacts to your e-mail inbox up-to-date. (If you're a corporate IT manager, there are a lot of other goodies, including the ability to manage and enforce corporate IT policies through the Exchange server.)
5.	It's cool. Face it, when it comes to technology, there's a certain "gee whiz" factor, a kind of coolness, that counts for something. The latest crop of phones has definitely got it. Put your hands on a HP iPAQ hw6500 or the newest Palm Treo, and you'll know what I'm talking about. And even if this isn't the future of computing, so what? You'll look so sharp with one.

Alright, the newest phones are feather-light, terrific travel companions, they are real computers that are compatible with a serious corporate network — and they're cool.

Ready to go out and buy a phone to use as a PC replacement? Whoa. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

•	Size does matter. "There is just not enough screen real estate to effectively work on documents," warns Ethan Simmons, a partner with NetTeks Technology Consultants, Inc., an IT consulting firm in Boston. So don't think about writing the great American novel on your phone.
•	It's slooooooow. "I have to admit, my phone isn't the zippiest. That's another limitation, says Mark Hewitt, the chief technology officer for Inteligy, a Tampa, Fla.-based application developer. When it comes to speed, "the PDA-phone combination is not ready for prime time.
•	You'll still need a PC at some point. A PDA-phone is "designed to augment the use of a PC by providing access to important information while on the go," explains Brant Jones, manager of HP's iPAQ software marketing. But they're not ready to completely replace PCs, which are designed and used for robust data processing and management.

At the rate these devices are developing, these barriers won't be around much longer. Stay tuned. Soon, your only PC may fit in the palm of your hand.