PDAs Vs Laptops For Your Business Tool Of Choice

For many small and large businesses equipping your staff or workers with the right business tool does present a small dilemma: should you go with a PDA or a Laptop? Examining the features and benefits of both these technical marvels will help you or your company make the right decision.

First, you probably already know PDA stands for "Personal Digital Assistant" and are handheld computers. Popular PDA brand names include PalmOne, Tungsten and Blackberry. Although these devices are small and fit in the palm of your hand, they can perform a whole range of functions including calculator, clock, calendar, web browser, send and receive e-mails, typewriter, word processor, video camera and even GPS (Global Positioning System).

Newer models now come with color screens and can also be used as a mobile or cell phone. Apple has recently introduced the iPhone which will offer many of the above features accessible via a touchscreen. It will have an OS X system and many advanced features that will revolutionize the PDA market. According to Apple the iPhone will be available in Mid-2007.

PDAs are convenient, multi-functional and very easy to carry around. They are great business tools for working in the field or on the factory floor. A virtual office in the palm of your hand. Many professionals become "addicted" to their PDAs and couldn't imagine work or life without a PalmOne or a Blackberry!However, while the small size of the PDA is its main advantage, it also presents a major stumbling block. In an ageing workforce or for those "digitally challenged", using or manipulating those small buttons or touchscreens can be a problem. Many people find using such small devices and small screens somewhat troublesome to say the least.

Everything is at your fingertips but it feels like Lilliput or Land Of The Giants revisited. Dialing numbers on a small touchscreen can be a hit or miss situation. Organizing a company spreadsheet on a minute 2 inch screen is a gigantic task (pardon the pun). PDAs are just too small for some workers. While not exactly its Achilles heel, it is something every manager or boss must consider.

Thus we come the next business tool that should be on your list: the business laptop. Basically, a laptop will give you most of the functions of a PDA in a larger package. And if your laptop comes with a VOIP phone just about all the functions can be preformed on a laptop instead of a PDA.

A laptop will give you a much larger screen for all those spreadsheets and diagrams, not to mention any video presentation will go over better on a laptop. Laptops usually come with more robust options and a larger storage space than PDAs. A regular size keyboard on a laptop will make word processing, typing and sending e-mails much, much easier. It is something you must consider.

With the recent developments of the Intel Duo core processors and the new Windows Vista operating system, laptops are becoming more powerful and more lightweight. Laptop batteries can now last the full business day or until the next re-charging without any interruption in function or service.

A laptop offers all this convenience in a larger package and makes for an excellent business tool for any company or home office. Laptops are usually more expensive than PDAs but this price gap is narrowing as laptop prices have fallen dramatically in the last couple of years.

What you really have to ask: "Does size matter to you?"If you or your workers can easily use the small touchscreens and buttons on a PDA than that may be your business tool of choice. However, if these small screens present a problem, then a lightweight laptop should be considered as your next choice.

Of course, companies with unlimited resources can equip their workers with both a PDA and a Laptop; making the whole argument rather moot. However, most of us are not coming from this vantage point so you should let size be your deciding factor. This is one case where size comes before form or function in determining your business tool of choice.