I was thinking about these awards the other day and it occurred to me that this would be an appropriate nickname. First, because I don't give the companies anything tangible. In fact, I've never bothered to inform the companies that I gave them an award. Some people at the companies know about them, because the read my annual postings. But that's about it. Second, my tradition has always been that I don't give awards just because I can think of a category. That continues. Third, although I've never mentioned it before, I think it's always been clear that I favour "value". I don't like to waste money, so my awards have tended to favour products and services that show the best value for money.
This year was unusual because it will have been a whole year in
which I did not have an article published with my name on it.
For reasons I won't go into, I did not have the time for article
writing in 2001. Hopefully I'll get back to it in 2002, but that
can't be predicted right now. My product testing did go on,
though at a reduced scale, so for this set of awards, I'm relying
more heavily on "trusted sources" rather than my own personal
testing. That is an annoyance, but I have considered my sources
and have confidence in them.
[2002/01/31]
I am pleased and honored to have additional comments by Emru
Townsend, who has several years of equipment evaluation experience
under his belt. I gave Emru a copy of my original draft, and
I've added his comments, uneditted, after my own. Many thanks
to Emru for taking time for this. -- JO]
[2002/02/17]
As in previous years, these are awards for "products and achievements", but the focus is on "commercial products". To qualify as a commercial product, it should have been available to end users within 2001. Otherwise it may qualify as an "achievement" if the achievement could be adequately verified in 2001. I take the matter of commercial products being "real" very seriously. This is the industry that invented the term "vapourware". I do not give awards for vapourware.
In order to be a commercial product, a customer must actually be able to buy it. Customers placing orders and paying money for purchase doesn't make it a product. Neither does early distribution of "beta test" versions. To be a product it must be delivered in good working condition. To be a product in 2001, a product had to be delivered in 2001. On the other hand, something available in 2001 is still a product even if no customers actually bought them. That might be called a "failed" product, but it was still a product.
As I wrote above, if something fails to be a "product, it might still be an "achievement. In most cases, "achievements" are awarded on the basis of information from "trusted sources."
These are products and services available in the world at large, but with preferences to North America, Canada, Ontario and Toronto -- where this Webzine is produced. Products do not have to be "new in 2001". That's nonsense. If a product is the best, that's what should count. If nobody has produced anything better, then even more credit should go to those who created it.
Regarding categories and rankings: I considered setting more
specific categories and possibly an overall winner. I also
considered more specific ranking. But that would not give a true
picture of the industry or the market. To give awards "just because
I could identify a category" would diminish the achievements of those
who were truly outstanding. Furthermore, regarding multiple winners
and/or runners up, to give an award to some products but not their
competitors, when they were actually very close, would also wrongly
diminish the accomplishments of those who deserve recognition. This
was the fairest and most accurate reflection of the reality of the
industry I found. If you disagree, I make no apologies.
The Moving Target
Jim Omura, 2002/01/31.
As in previous years, there is no "best laptop" award. The usual reason still applies. For the most part, comparing the major Windows brands, you pretty much get what you pay for. The Apple Powerbooks very nice, but their being based on the PowerPC / MacOS platform is as much a disadvantage as an advantage.
1. Best Laptops: I have to agree. I love mine dearly-- being able to get work done anywhere is always a book-- but it still weighs just enough to wrench my shoulder on long trips. Battery life is still an issue unless I pop out the wireless adapter or reduce screen brightness and processor speed-- in short, reducing its capabilities. All of which would be worth it if they didn't cost so darned much. [E. T.]
Sony finally came to Canada and the Clie PEG-S320, a competitor to Palm's m500, at $299 Cdn (under $200 US) revolutionized the industry specifically due to its price point. In the wake of that, Palm eventually responded with price drops and Handspring seems to feel that its products expansion capabilities offset Sony's features and has the only 16MB RAM device in the Palm field. So by the end of the year it's a competitive field. But Sony's move did raise eyebrows.
On the Microsoft side, this was the year that Compaq made a name for itself with the StrongARM based iPaq 3600 series PocketPC line. But as with many products, the reality didn't live up to the hype. For non-techy people, it was "inconvenient" and overpriced. I would say that pretty much all the best handhelds are "inconvenient" to some extent, but at least ones that cost under $200 US are not overpriced. For me, the biggest disappointment was the big button covering the speaker. At first this looked like a potentially good idea. But when I tried it, it felt terribly clunky. Luckily, it was completely unnecessary since all the software I tried could be used without it. Ironically, while NEC (MobilePro P300) and Casio (E-200) have continued this design (and hopefully improved on it), Compaq, in their latest "2002" H3800 series products, has abandonned this feature and moved the speaker to the top of the device. I believe that this new version will prove to be a better idea, but I haven't tried it yet.
The most promising products I've seen or otherwise know about so far in 2001 are the Casio BE-300, which is the lowest priced multimedia capable pocket computer, the new Compaq iPaq H3800 series, which seems to correct design errors in the original 3600 series, the Franklin Bookman which introduces an new form factor (not a "PDA") and the Sharp SL-5000d which is the development version of Sharp's coming Linux based pocket computer. The latter is an odd inclusion because it's not advertised as a consumer product in North America. But since a version of the device is a "product" in Japan, I'll include it on that basis.
The subnotebook field is almost dead, which is silly. There is no doubt that this is a good size for products. The problem is chicken v. egg. People look at the field and see no products so they are skeptical of the value of such a product, and thus avoid them. Companies seeing "little demand" don't bring out products. There actually are products you can get on special order, specifically in the educational field.
The Psion netBook/Series 7 was the best, though there is no telling how long it will last. Read the old reviews. Little has changed. That's about all that's worth saying.
I could have named this the "best" product, but the field is just too diverse and there are areas wherein I simply do not feel qualified to comment. However, the SMC Barricade 7004AWBR, with its combination of printer server, wide area network (DSL or cable modem) router, 3 port 10/100 switch and regular serial port phone line modem fail-over capability is fully usable without its 802.11b wireless capability, and at its low cost (as low as $300 Cdn. late in 2001) makes an excellent "bridge" piece.
I bought one and am currently only using the printer server capability. I will add 802.11b wireless cards to some of my mobile computers later. The interesting thing is that this current device is significant only for existing SOHO and family computing, since you can't even buy a printer without a USB port in most stores these days. It is a temporary niche product. But it is clear that a similar array of capabilities should be the basis of some future products.
4. Wireless Products and Services: Intel's AnyPoint II deserves a mention. I've been looking at wireless network setups for well over a year now, and the only thing that kept me from jumping in seriously (aside from standard issues) was that every review I read commented on installation hassles. That's exactly what I don't want to hear about. Lately I've been using the Intel setup and I have to say it's a beaut. What makes it notable is the ease of setup, which goes something like this: (1) Install hardware. (2) Install software. (3) Use it. Really, it was that easy. I had three computers set up in under 20 minutes. I think that for 11 mbps wireless networking to catch on among consumers, it has to be this easy, this flexible (the Anypoint II system allows for peer-to-peer networking or using a gateway -- a simple configuration switch), and this cheap (each adapter is about $150 Canadian). [E. T.]
For my 2000 awards I wrote:
"I could as easily say that Telus/Clearnet and Rogers Cantel were to be avoided. These are not the results of huge differences. Bell Mobility, though still not "nationwide" continues as a winner from last year based on its strength in the middle and upper price ranges. If you use all the bells and whistles, they are further along, particularly in support of microbrowser use, all on the clearly superior CDMA platform. Fido's strength is its best packages in the low price services.
The question you might ask is what's wrong with Telus/Clearnet and Rogers Cantel? Telus/Clearnet packages have gone downhill over the years. The price of its low end pre-paid service climbed higher than Fido, and then they took away the option of not receiving Short Message Service, whereby other people can cause you to be charged 10 cents per message beyond your monthly rate. Rogers Cantel's TDMA was, and still is simply the worst technology, and the company has already announced that it will be replaced over time with the GSM that Fido is built on. But even right now, you still buy TDMA -- not GSM. If you bought it in 2000, you bought a loser. Most likely you will have to pay for a new handset to convert to GSM. And in 2000, their packages were as confusing as ever."
I see little to change this year. Rogers has had some good "special offers" but their limited nature makes them a bad idea. We need the ability to carry phone numbers from one carrier to another without charge, or at a very low cost. Microcell should be commended for taking this stand. If we had that, then trying Rogers at its special prices might have been worthwhile.
The following awards are for individual pieces of products. I consider them achievements worthy of awards, regardless of the rest of the products they comprise.
There is no doubt that the NEC VR-4131 is the best processor in current use in the pocket computer field. With its double issue superscalar pipline design, the 200MHz version is the most powerful processor in current use outright and the lower 166MHz speed version has significant power saving. Ironically, the Casio E-750, which is the only device using the 200MHz version, is only available in Japan, and I expect, will probably be discontinued in favour of devices powered by the inferior 206MHz StrongARM SA-1110 series CPUs. The fact that despite its higher clock speed, the StrongARM CPU is slower and less energy efficient is than a VR-4131 is a temporary situation, but it is a clear step backwards for the interim.
Also ironic is that the Casio BE-300, which uses the slower 166MHz version of the VR-4131 wastes its energy efficiency by using an old technology colour screen which requires a backlight at all times. A monochrome screen version would have lowered the price even more (it currently sells for $299.99 Cdn., which is itself a strikingly low price for a "multimedia capable" pocket computer) and could have rivaled the Palm monochrome devices for battery life.
Don't confuse this with the rocker switches used on PocketPC devices. The Sony wheel is like the scroll wheels that are now popular on desk computer mice. The fact that even Microsoft uses scroll wheels on mice instead of rocker switches like the PocketPC devices shows that it's recognized as a clearly better input method.
The screen on the Sony PEG-N710/N760 is a outstanding colour screen with its daylight usability, 320 * 320 resolution and 64K colours. But right now, it's only available at a very high price. Hopefully that situation will change in the near future.
While the dropping of Flash memory prices has been dramatic, particularly in 2001, the real impact will be felt in 2002. It doesn't make wireless irrelevant, but it reduces the need for remote storage access. When you consider that the Palm devices have proven themselves to be useful with less than 8MB of memory for storage, it's strange to think that next year, we'll probably be buying 100 - 200 MB Flash devices for under $100 Cdn.
The Agenda VR3 was the first Linux based pocket computer It has achieved some limited succcess. I have yet to read anything by a reputable writer saying that this product is even passable. I might yet test one myself, but that won't be till 2002.
Sharp has already been selling a Linux based pocket computer in Japan. I have no sales figures or reviews for this product. It is, of course, the SL-5000 series device which we will see in North America next year.