Palm Delivers Lower TCO to Enterprises

Study Shows 41% Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) Savings With Palm OS Over Pocket PC

May 23, 2002 A Study conducted by The Gantry Group LLC of Concord, Mass shows that the Palm OS platform delivers a 41 percent annual cost savings to enterprises when contrasted with the Pocket PC platform.

Gantry Group designed and tested a highly parameterized TCO measurement tool that captured multiple cost components associated with buying, deploying, managing and supporting handheld devices. Of the six basic cost components examined in the study, Palm OS based devices were less expensive in every component -- and more than 60 percent less expensive for software, IT services and training (see chart below).

TCO Cost Comparison

Average Annualized Palm OS Pocket PC Percent per Handheld Difference
Palm OS
Pocket PC
% Difference
Software distribution and update management
$7.99
$50.00
84%
Training
$26.32
$95.10
10 72%
IT Services
$25.55
$65.19
19 61%
Amortized lifetime device cost with add-ons
$274.30
$413.76
34%
Help desk and support
$68.51
$93.00
26%
Air-time services
$53.12
$58.62
1%
Total Handheld TCO
$455.78
$775.77
41%

 

According to Gantry, the average number of devices involved in a deployed enterprise solution is at least 500 devices; based on that, enterprises could
realize an annual cost savings of $159,995 to their bottom lines if they were to deploy Palm solutions.

Forty enterprise sites -- 20 Palm OS mobile solutions and 20 Pocket PC mobile solutions -- were researched, recruited and interviewed in the United
States. Gantry is now expanding the study to encompass case studies on the ROI (return on investment) realized by three of the companies in the study that
used Palm branded handhelds.

"This study provides the compelling evidence we are sharing with enterprise customers that proves Palm powered handhelds are a more cost-effective mobile solution," said Ken Wirt, Palm's senior vice president of marketing and product management. "This TCO message, combined with the high user acceptance experience reported by Palm handheld customers, lets Palm create a win both for the IT department and the end user -- our goal as a
provider of enterprise solutions."

Palm OS and Pocket PC are the two leading mobile solution platforms, according to IDC's April 2002 report, "Sync or Swim: Worldwide Smart Handheld
Devices Forecast and Analysis, 2002-2006." This report shows that the Palm OS platform had a 52.8 percent share of worldwide handheld device shipments by operating system in 2001. IDC notes Pocket PC share in 2001 was only 21 percent.

About Gantry Group

The Gantry Group is an Internet professional services company that uses custom market intelligence and research to develop strategies that show companies how to cost-effectively accelerate successful market adoption of their product or service offerings. Additional information about Gantry Group can be found at http://www.gantrygroup.com.

For a copy of the white paper: "The Palm OS versus Pocket PC Mobile Solutions Deployment" Click Here (PDF)

 
 
 
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