Just in time for CTIA, Silicon.com reports that the US Census bureau will buy 500,000 HTC smartphones running Windows Mobile 5.0. I was ready to send out the champagne to Microsoft’s embedded device folks until I read the deal is for the 2010 census.
Is the Census Bureau getting ahead of itself to get behind the times? Cell phones have changed much in the last four years, as has Windows Mobile. Where will the technology be in 2010, and surely Windows Mobile would have advanced a version or two.
Considering the census data usually is years old before its released, there is something karmic about the situation.
I read several news stories explaining how the Census Bureau was modernizing and, with the HTC smartphone purchase, moving away from paper. My reaction: How is standardizing on 2005-06 technology for 2010 modernizing? Is this bureaucracy behind the times?
Photo Credit: Mark Wonderferret