Over the year's, I often found myself spending hours searching the internet for a good deal on mobile devices. Normally I dont find anything too different from the last time I checked, but a few months ago I started finding that mobile rugged devices were cheaper.

Cheap Mobile Rugged Devices

Mobile devices are a major cost element for our customers. A good device can cost well over £1000 and after getting accesories (chargers, insurance, docking stations, batteries, ect) you could see costs rocket to £2000. The cost of ruggedised devices makes rolling out a mobile system very expensive. If prices drop we could expect a big uptake our services.

Things appear to be changing, new devices are coming out from the big names
like Motorola and Intermec that are more reasonably priced. Another change is that the devices are being designed to be 'cooler'. Something that can be used after hours. The Intermec CS40 and Motorola MC55 are fully rugged, look great and are amoung the cheapest devices on the market at under £900. Other less known brand names like Pidion 5000 priced at under £700.

One of the biggest incentives behind our new Android application development was the suggestion that rugged devices would be alot cheaper than Windows Mobile devices. Its still early days with Android here in the uk, with only around 2 rugged devices appearing on the web. The changes in price and style of WM6x could help Microsoft boost its market share before Android becomes more relevent in the rugged market. With Microsoft charging manufacturers upto $25 per operating system and Google giving Android away free you would expect more Android rugged devices soon, but why would prices be cheaper than the $25 saving from the operating system.

Some of the new cheaper devices like the Motorola EC400 and MC35 are classed as durable or semi rugged. They sell for under £500. Remember to look for WM6.1, WM6.5 and Android 2.2 devices as most software development will target the features of these operating systems, previouse versions could be restrictive in that software might not support them.

So in summary prices are coming down. Over the years I found very little had changed. The last few months has seen changes. The Intermec CS40 and Motorola MC55 are the smallest rugged devices available, making them suitable replacement for a mobile phone. They are also the cheapest ever released by these 2 big names.

Installing .NET 3.5 and SQL CE 3.5 on Window Mobile X

Finding the right cab files for the mobile operating system can be confusing, so for our own use as much as yours, here is a list of them:

Windows Mobile 6 + 7

NETCFv35.wm.armv4i.cab (.NET)

sqlce.wce5.armv4i.CAB(SQL CE)

Windows Mobile 5

NETCFv35.ppc.armv4.cab (.NET)

sqlce.ppc.wce4.armv4.CAB (SQL CE)

Windows Mobile 2003

NETCFv35.ppc.armv4.cab (.NET)

sqlce.ppc.wce4.armv4.CAB (SQL CE)