When Claudia Sobek is working with customers in her section of the Hamburg branch of the department store Kaufhof, she feels much more comfortable with her mini-butler around.
"If a certain article of clothing isn't in stock, one peek at my portable data device lets me know whether a new delivery is expected soon," said Sobek, who heads the women's clothing department.
The computer, which is the size of a personal stereo, is constantly provided with current information from the store's central servers via radio antennae in the ceiling.
"About 3,700 of these devices are currently in place in our stores," said Kaufhof's Julie Edelmann-Veith. "They spare our employees a good deal of running around, whether they are labelling products or taking inventory."
Future models of the mini-butlers will let workers check their e-mail from anywhere in the store, as well as to check their schedule.
"Handhelds are a very important tool for companies," says Axel Pols from the retail industry association Bitkom. Pocket computer manufacturers have succeeded at convincing companies of the benefits of these devices, he said.
Handheld manufacturers are now jostling for the business world's attention by serving up special business-specific models of their products. Branch leader Palm, for example, recently released its Tungsten model on to the market.
The American company is competing with the PocketPC from Microsoft and Hewlett Packard. Sony, Nokia, and Toshiba each also have their own alternatives.
Personal digital assistants, or PDAs, have long since passed out of the realm of digital notebooks and day-planners. They can now be used to surf the Internet, receive data over cellular or radio signals, create text documents, and stage business presentations.
Some devices even play back music and movies and take snapshots with a built-in digital camera. Companies can save significant money by using pocket computers through increased worker productivity and a reduction in paper costs, according to one study by US-based marketing research firm Gartner.
Europeans are shelling out hundreds of millions of euros this year for pocket computers, Bitkom reports. European sales of pocket computers climbed around 15 percent in the third quarter, the first time in a year that sales have risen. But the worldwide market shrank by approximately 2.4 percent.
"PDA sales will rise again when the prices fall," said Bitkom's Pols.
The BlackBerry, a different kind of PDA, is the standard equipment for employees at Bertelsmann, the Germany-based media conglomerate.
The machines, a creation of the Canadian company Research in Motion (RIM), are mobile pocket computers that hold a permanent encrypted connection (GPRS) with their server.
This means that the computers do not need to waste time reconnecting when the user wants to retrieve e-mail or transfer data.
"These help keep our employees current," said Bertelsmann's Oliver Hergesell. The e-mail devices, built with business people in mind, were handed out to selected employees at the media house at the beginning of the year.
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