But sometimes professional-oriented software, also known as vertical market software, becomes an extremely successful product which holds a certain professional niche in the general market. A demonstrative example is ePatient, shown in Figure F, by IatroSoft (at http://www.iatrosoft.com) that enables physicians to more efficiently access, collect, and organize medical information at the point-of-care with their PDA devices.

FIGURE F


ePatient is software by professionals for professionals. Roll over picture for a larger image.

This is solely a vertical market product, but the great number of potential users in the medical industry makes this software pretty successful in its market. I'd guess that the early idea for ePatient appeared in a doctor's mind rather than in programmer's one.

Bottom line
Writing this article, I shuffled the examples among sections several times. The actual process of software birth is much complicated. Usually, it's the combination of several tactics: research, cloning, improvement and many other ways that I surely missed.

All those samples are very symbolic; nevertheless, they help to look at PDA software development process under the new angle and to see new perspectives. I'm sure that now, when we are all anticipating the new changes in the PDA technology industry, meditating upon this problem is very valuable for everyone who deals with PDAs. Seeing how ideas are born, how they grow and get improved, and finally appear on your PDA always charms me and gives a great positive and educational impact. That's why I call it magic.

Dennis Crane (dennis@utracksys.com), a software professional developer, is a co-founder of UTrackSys.com LLC at http://www.utracksys.com, which develops multipurpose tracking software for Palm OS handheld devices. In the company Dennis is responsible for public relations, marketing issues and customer relationships processes.