個人數位助理之發展趨勢分析

Abstract

隨著資訊家電興起，無線通訊的需求日益增加，個人數位助理（Personal Digital Assistant, PDA）成為熱門的消費電子產品，是資訊家電代表性的產品。1993年Apple發表第一代PDA產品，但是因為產品不夠成熟，因而並未普及。直至1996年Palm Computing 推出「Palm Pilot」系列的PDA產品才成功地打開PDA市場。隨著Microsoft、Symbian加入PDA產業，PDA之市場競爭逐漸白熱化。兼具無線通訊功能，加上各類應用功能之開發，PDA未來市場潛力極為可期。 本研究主要目的在探討個人數位助理之發展趨勢，在理論面以產品生命週期和資訊家電、資訊電子產業等文獻為主，再輔以實務面的個案研究，探討PDA OS之系統競爭者：Palm OS、WinCE、EPOC、Linux在各個層面的優劣勢。再者，本論文基於無線通訊產業發展方向，試圖探討PDA在無線通訊產業之發展契機。

With the increasing popularity of Information Appliance and the rising demand of wireless communications, PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) has become one of the most famous consumer electronic products. First announced in 1993 by Apple, PDA’s market share grew up significantly at 1996 when Palm Computing launched its main product “Pilot 100”. After Microsoft and Symbian joined the market as the PDA OS providers, the competition of PDA industry started. With the development of wireless communicating and various applications, the future of PDA is predicted optimistically. Besides the related reference literature, there are interviews with experts and case analysis. This research explores the trend of PDA and summarizes the competition advantages of the main PDA OS: Palm OS, WinCE, EPOC, and Linux. Moreover, this thesis discusses the future opportunities in wireless communications area.