What would you suggest as a rugged Windows-Mobile PDA? We need 12 including a spare. Palm could be acceptable but Windows seems the future now that even the Palm Treo 700 will have this OS. Preferably, it has 2 USB ports, one of which can be plugged to a scanner device. A craddle would be fine.

Another scenario would be to use online Windows-Mobile based hand held devices, that would allow both ways communication with a central workstation and (possibly) direct update of our ODBC database. I am afraid that the cost would explode. We had a quote of 70K$+ 2 years ago. Was then turned down by the owner of the company.

Any experience in either scenarios? Costs?

 

My recommendation but I am bias...

Inter-Tel Model 8601
The Inter-Tel Model 8601 is a soft phone that runs on the Pocket PC Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) platforms, enabling users to stay connected while mobile within an 802.11b wireless network. Users can receive and initiate phone calls, access features such as transfer, forward, hold, mute and conference—while away from the their desks. Users can receive message waiting alerts, speed-dial numbers, access the call log and quickly retrieve voice mail messages.

OR

 

Did you even read his post? How exactly is that a handheld mobile device?

 

Depending on the availability of a wide-area wireless network, you might be able to get a company to develop a full scale custom application on a Windows-Mobile platform that would allow you to handle anything you want. I don't know if there are any PDAs that run standard USB ports, but I'll bet you could find a few with mini-USB ports.