JeffKirvin.net

Found this on Mobility Site:

What about the Dell Axim?
Bad news here. The rumor I posted about last week is the verdict. Once the current Dell Axim offerings are gone, they are gone.

Source: Mobility Site: Dell Rumor Update - RIP Dell Axim

Dell seems to be giving the Axim the, uh, axe.

I can’t say I’m all that surprised. The Axim, once the near perfect PDA (the x51v, which was the VGA-screened WM5 version), has fallen behind the times. The sad fact is that PDAs as we once knew them are essentially a dead market. Smartphones rule. I’ve joked that the new names for Windows Mobile 6 devices, under which PDAs without phone radios are dubbed “Windows Mobile 6 Classic”, only narrowly beat out “Windows Mobile 6 Vintage” as the name for PDAs.

But what I think needs pointing out here is that we’re not just talking about touchscreen handheld computers with or without a phone radio. That one feature, or lack thereof, completely changes the nature of the device and how it’s used.

Pocket PC Phones (Windows Mobile Professional in WM6-speak) are qualitatively different than Pocket PCs. The presence of a phone radio means more, much more, than just making voice calls. The presence of a phone radio means that the device is assumed to be online 24/7. It means that the device is more interactive than reference, a portal terminal to the Great Interweb with all of its glorious tubes.

The effects of this ubiquitous connection are felt throughout the device. No longer a mere satellite to a desktop PC, the device can sync with an Exchange or IMAP server and be a mail client in its own right. Instead of storing a dictionary on a storage card, you can hit Dictionary.com, Wikipedia or the Internet Movie Database whenever a reference emergency arises. Instead of playing yet another hand of solitaire, you can play games online against other people. Even Audible and podcasts have gone live with dynamic downloads or streaming instead of downloading to your PC and syncing the content you intend to listen to before you leave the house.

And the fact is that the Axim can’t do any of that. (Yes, I know it has WiFi, but you and I both know WiFi availability is the exception rather than the rule.) Even tethered over Bluetooth to a phone it’s simply not as quick, easy or thought-free to access the internet on a PDA.

So Dell had two choices. It could discontinue the Axim, or start making smartphones (small “s”, covering both touch and touchless devices). HP was recently faced with the same decision, and answered with their first Windows Mobile Standard (Smartphone in WM5-speak) device. It’s overpriced and underpowered (really, a 220×176 screen in 2007?), but it’s a start.

Dell has decided to go with Option A, at least for now. Given that they just hired former Motorola handset chief Ron Garriques to, in the words of Michael Dell, “create a new global consumer organization that will set new standards for innovative product design, leadership in providing the best customer experience, and flexibility in how we build and distribute products and services to meet the evolving needs of our customers around the world,” I don’t doubt at all that we’ll see a Dell answer to the Moto Q in due time. But it won’t be called an Axim. The time for Windows Mobile Classic devices has already passed.

The world is connected now, and we need devices that embrace and enable that.