Last month, I touched a little bit on HP’s screwed up Linux PDA initiative, but perhaps I was a bit too harsh. Sure, they have a research arm that’s completely underutilized and they have absolutely no clue as how to turn those efforts into a product, but HP is in no way unique in their absence from the PDA and Linux device cluetrain. For the most part, the entire industry needs a swift kick in the head to see how to build and market a successful Linux handheld and to learn how to properly support open source PDA developers. I learned how the hard way, and here’s my painful perspective on the whole shebang.
Last month, I touched a little bit on HP’s screwed up Linux PDA initiative, but perhaps I was a bit too harsh. Sure, they have a research arm that’s completely underutilized and they have absolutely no clue as how to turn those efforts into a product, but HP is in no way unique in their absence from the PDA and Linux device cluetrain. For the most part, the entire industry needs a swift kick in the head to see how to build and market a successful Linux handheld and to learn how to properly support open source PDA developers. I learned how the hard way, and here’s my painful perspective on the whole shebang.
A Painful Lesson
From December of 2002 through February 2003, I was Software Developer Liaison for Sharp’s Electronics’ Zaurus, probably the first handheld Linux device to enjoy any commercial success at all (although its success has been extremely limited, and at the end of the day, only the hardcore Linux faithful have remained loyal to the product.)
While I can’t go into detail about how many units were sold in the United States, it was considerably lower than most public estimates. Within the first six months of the product’s launch, it was banished from superstore shelves, the product was re-purposed as an overpriced enterprise handheld for vertical market applications, and then was only for sale by a handful of resellers and small system integrators. Currently, the only way to get…
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