Microsoft Corporation has recently announced the new PocketPC 2002 operating system for PDAs. PocketPC 2002 brings a bunch of new features and improvements. The main place among these features occupies network access option. In this connection we would like to highlight some points:

• PocketPC 2002 will require an ARM-based processor, such as the Intel StrongARM found in current iPAQs. That's why users of popular Pocket PC models running SH3 or MIPS CPUs (such as Cassiopeia, Symbol or HP Jornada) will not be able to upgrade to PocketPC 2002. The only option left for these users is to browse LAN resources with PocketLANce.
• PocketPC 2002 is rather memory consuming. PocketPC 2002's features can't fit in 16MB and Microsoft is encouraging its PDA partners to use 32MB of Flash ROM in new devices. The upgrade for iPAQs with only 16MB of ROM will split the apps between ROM and RAM. Therefore PocketLANce can be considered as an alternative network browsing solution with no necessity in additional hardware such as Flash Network Card.
• With PocketLANce you can add great LAN browsing capabilities to your Pocket PC device running Windows CE 3.0 immediately. So you don't have to wait until manufacturer of your PDA starts upgrading devices already sold. You also don't need to pay upgrade fee and/or postal costs. So far only iPAQs support the upgrade because they use Flash ROM, have sufficient memory, and run ARM-based processors.
• We will make PocketLANce run on the PocketPC 2002 operating system. Using PocketLANce under PocketPC 2002 operating system brings some advantages such as more convenient browsing of the network resources, which are presented as a tree, like in Windows Explorer. Compare the following screenshots:

With PocketLANce corporate users will have the following advantages:

• Minimizing of the software costs due to the fact that the key feature of the PocketPC 2002 operating system becomes available on current pool of Pocket PCs. At present many inexpensive corporate Pocket PCs are running MIPS and SH3 processors and/or have insufficient memory. So they cannot be upgraded to PocketPC 2002. Therefore PocketLANce is a cost effective solution for current corporate users;
• Fast deployment of network access solution on the current pool of Pocket PCs just by installing PocketLANce software;
• PocketLANce Software Development Kit is available for download here. PocketLANce SDK is a comprehensive function library enabling system integrators and C/C++ developers to incorporate wireless, landline and local networking capabilities into commercial or custom applications based on the Microsoft Windows-Powered Pocket PC platform. With PocketLANce Platform SDK you can easily, just by slight editing of source code, develop new or update existing Pocket PC based corporate software systems adding them functions of network data access.