The day ended with a bang...
Interesting light program day at the PPC Summit. Ended with kind of a bang when there was a bit of a public disagreement between the last presenter, analyst Todd Kort of Gartner Dataquest and one of the conference organizers. I should say, that one of the conference organizers was not happy with the way the information was being presented (he thought it was presented as bashing Microsoft) and basically told the presenter so in front of the whole audience.
Now, I obviously have a lot of affection for the Pocket PC, and have chosen it over Palm, but it doesn't stop me from recommending Palm where it makes sense but still championing Pocket PC. I think balanced knowledge is important to ensure that you can present a credible perspective to people. However, all of the people attending the Summit are big people and able to understand what the presenter was trying to do, and indeed, what he thought he was supposed to do: present the state of the handheld industry as he saw it. This was not necessarily how the presentation was billed (it was supposed to be "The Anatomy of the Pocket PC Industry," but in Mr. Kort's view, that was a much broader subject) and people (and the conference organizer) were a bit thrown off by the change.
I say "as he saw it" because he appeared to be badly misinformed about a number of Pocket PC features and capabilities and seemed to be a bit biased toward Palm (or blind toward PPC features).
As an occasional consumer of Gartner research output in my technical analysis work (and knowing how much it costs!) it is a source of deep consternation to me when it becomes evident to me that one of their analysts does not appear to have all his ducks in a row. My axe to grind with him was when he presented the 'street price' of the Palm m515 as $325 and used that in a comparision with Pocket PC prices.
My favorite example of where the consumer market for Palm and Pocket PC meet is in the m515 and Toshiba e310 comparison. In the real world (and I do expect Palm to lower this price fairly soon) both devices sell for $399; e.g. you walk into an Office Depot or CompUSA, the price of both devices is $399. Mr. Kort's suggestion of a $325 street price for the m515 was supported by only one online retailer, called something like BuyDig.com. Certainly some other sites showed prices below $399, but all large retailers were in the range of $399 down to $375 or so. $325 is the single lowest available price, and not necessarily from a retailer that will make most people comfortable.
I hope Mr. Kort reevaluates his information and delves deeper into the other platforms. Still, no reason for him to have been interrupted in the middle of his presentation. Any disagreements should have waited until the end.
8:22:18 PM 
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