What's in the Field: PC or Appliance?

Abstract
Current platforms for field computing are based largely on the existing model for desktop computing: field applications run in a multi-purpose environment along with an office suite, a browser, and various other packages. This paper suggests that, in the future, field computing will come in a variety of forms but, increasingly, it will diverge from this “PC on a stick” model. Instead, many mobile solutions will take the form of highly specific information appliances that are cheaper, simpler, and more relevant to the task at hand. This paper examines the conceptual differences and looks at examples of utilities already utilizing appliances in the field.

While field computing follows the general trends of the computer industry -- with hardware getting smaller and closer to the place of work -- it also suggests a paradigm that at first glance appears to be new. This is the emergence of the PC versus Appliance option open to those who are developing and implementing field applications. This option extends to applications of even the most advanced type involving large databases and graphics.

First, what is meant by appliance? This is a term that has evolved in the past few years to describe a highly specific information-based platform, usually something that can be carried with a user and accessed on an “as needed” basis regardless of the setting. For most people, there tends to be an assumption that an appliance is small, limited, and cheap: cell phones, pagers, PDAs. Most appliances do fall into this category, but it is worth noting that the term “limited” may be the most important defining characteristic of an appliance, at times overshadowing both size and cost considerations.

In the utility industry, specialized computing appliances have a long history. Small devices for meter readers or pole inspectors, for example, have been used for years. Although these devices have fallen under the strict technical definition of computers, they were limited to one specific task.

By comparison, a PC is not limited, at least in a relative sense. For those of us who are involved in the development and use of field applications involving GIS data, the PC model is the one we have favored for obvious reasons. We have not been able to provide effective applications in the constrained environment of a handheld computer (e.g., Palm Pilot) with its limited storage, and small screen size. Even where the use of a field computer is constrained to a narrow application, the response has been automatic. Need maps? Get a PC.

In fact, high-end mobile computer vendors have gone to great pains to distinguish themselves from appliance manufacturers, insisting that “you can do almost everything on a mobile computer that you can do on your desktop.” The desktop paradigm has embodied mobility and morphed into the “PC on a stick” model. Even high performance pen computers designed specifically for the field run in a multi-purpose environment today along with an office suite, a browser, and various other packages. Attach a keyboard, vendors assure us, and you have a PC.

So what’s wrong with that? Maddeningly, the answer is both nothing, and a lot. Like most things in life, there are trade-offs and ambiguities inherent in the PC v Appliance debate. What we all want, of course, is the ultimate: a smallish, lightweight computer with virtually unlimited battery life, a great outdoor screen, a screen large enough to view maps, plus we want a lot of storage. And we definitely want cheap.

Obviously, we’re not there yet. But we are getting closer. Windows CE is an attempt to join a PC operating environment and an appliance form factor. The Palm OS supports several handheld computers that – in addition to serving as organizers – are being used with spatial data. We’re beginning to see dramatic improvements in the appliance technology and we’re also beginning to see “early adapters” moving map-based applications onto CE and Palm platforms.