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The purpose of writing this post is not to compare the utility of either of these gadgets or to verdict upon which one is better among the two. Rather this article will discuss their functionalities and figure out whether one is replacable by the other. A portable media player (PMP), (synonymous with Apple’s iPod today) is basially used for storing and playing/displaying various formats of audio, video, and digital images. Whereas Personal Digital assistance (PDA) is a device desiged to be a personal organiser, to store and manage one’s contacts, appointments, to-do lists etc. These usally come with a touch screen for data input, and some PDAs as Blackberry come with a whole keypad and scroll wheels in addition for navigation.

But both the devices have come a long way, with loads of additional features apart from their basic functionalites since their introduction in early twenty first century. Let us have a quick look at what these devices have in store for everyone in today’s date.

PMP

1. Apart from the basic feature of storing and playing songs, PMPs as well can store and display digital images and videos. Some PMPs there days come with FM radio and voice recorders also.
2. PMPs usually come with USB ports for data transfer to or from a PC or laptop.And they can be used to store any other kind of data too, other than music or images. These data can be ones personal contact details in a file format though.
3. PMPs come with perloaded games also.

PDA

1. PDAs are perfect devices to store ones contact details, as addresses and phone numbers and other such details. It can used to keep track ofthe appointments and to-do lists both for personal and business purposes.
2. Now most of the PDAs come with internet connectivity, so this portble device is an ideal companion while one is on the move. Email and internet can be accessed while being away from work space.
3. The data in PDA can kept in synch with the laptop or PC of user by data synchronisation. They can usually be connected to the PC/laptop via USB cable or Infrared or bluetooth.
4. Memory can be a major concern as so much data needs to be stored in a PDA, as with these days they come with many additional functionalities, as MP3 player, digital cameras, and ever video recorderser. But then also one will not run out of memory as they usually comes with expandable memory. One can use SD, xD or some other memory cards.
5. Most PDAs provide passwords or some kind of data encription for protection for ones personal data.
6. Now smart phones have almost replaced the conventional PDA, which has all the features of a PDA as desribed above combined with cell phone.

So now the question is with today’s PMPs and PDAs which have almost the same features, which one to go for? Which one to buy?

1. In an PMP there is no option of data input or data editing. It is a display only device. Data can only be viewed, but not added or edited.
2. Data in the PMP cannot be searched, as there is no input to type the search criteria.
3. The PMPs usually compatible only with the inbuilt software. And for playing music, music purchased/downloaded on iTunes (Apple proprietory music store) can play only on Apple iPods and similarly music from Zune market place can be played on Microsoft’s Zune.
4. No new softwares cannot be loaded into PMPs. The operation of iPod cannot be customized in anyways. I does not contain maps or calendars, Email or web browsing can be done also like a PDA.
5. But it’s easy to operate a PMP, it can be used with only one hand. One can just use the jog wheel and scan through the data.
6. Similarly PDAs are not a very good option for playing music, and it is much difficult to operate using only one hand. Most PDAs, even the smart phones have the positioning of the keys like a computer keyboad. And with a much smaller version and positioning of the keys makes the job more tough.

So it seems we have the answer for which one to go for among the two gadgets. Today PMP and PDA can do more or less the same jobs, but each one performs the best in the areas which is their core competency, what they were designed to perform. PMP (iPod/Zune) for playing music and PDA (Blackberry) for storing data and as a personal organiser. One can always make the choice based upon the requirement of the user, as which kind of functionality is his/her prior concern.