Hats off to the organizers who made this event an overwhelming success!   I was very fortunate to  attend the second annual Pocket PC Summit (May 28-May 31) in Philadelphia this year.   

The keynote speeches were insightful and very inspiring for anyone involved with Pocket PCs' .   It was an honour to meet and greet some of the key people that have helped shape this relatively young industry.    

There is no finer group of individuals than those I met and spoke with at this show.   Their genuine openness and kindness truly left an impression on me (and my son!).   Special mention for Dale Coffing,  Jason Dunn,  Dave Ciccone,  Phillip Torrone and Tari Akpodiete.    

When the first Pocket PCs were introduced in April of 2000, only three companies partnered with Microsoft to manufacture the device. By the end of 2002, over 20 will have versions of the new Pocket PC 2002. This success is great, but with so many available, it's becoming more and more difficult to find the one that's right for you.

Most of us don't have the time or inclination to test lots of Pocket PC software. We would rather have someone we trust simply tell us the name of the best Pocket PC database program, the best action game, or the best video program. We're about to do that for you. However, in truth things aren't so simple.

As it was, we ended up with 49 categories of "bests." The reason for so many categories is that your best game might be shoot 'em Metalion and mine might be Pocket Chess. Maybe you want a relational database with lots of functionality, and I want a simple list manager. We created these many categories to accommodate such distinctions. Even with all these categories our Board of Expert judges commented that it was often hard to compare programs. For example, which is more important, ease of use, lots of features, beautiful graphics, price, this feature set or that one? Suffice it to say, many users could benefit from the product winners and finalists listed below as well as the vast majority of our nominations at .  These programs are all useful or fun, reasonably priced, and relatively bug-free.

As described in my Pocket View column, over 20 experts from around the world examined over 300 products in depth. Below you will find the winners and finalists, plus the judges' thoughts about the products they tested.

IMPORTANT: My goal in selecting and editing judges' comments was to come up with the most useful, insightful, non-redundant information for you, the Pocket PC user. Therefore, from reading the judges' comments, you cannot necessarily infer how the judge voted, since we often published his thoughts about second or third place products. Similarly, the comments were not selected to "prove" why a product won. A product won because they got the most votes (5 points for a first choice vote, 3 for second, 1 for third).

Biggest thanks go to the many developers of Pocket PC products. Creating useful and fun software is normally a labor of love, not a get-rich-quick scheme. We may have missed or didn't select as the winner your favorite product or the one that you developed. The process was good but not foolproof. Next year, we plan to add hardware accessories and Web sites to our Best Product Awards. Whether you are a judge, developer, or end user, email me at h  with your comments and ideas of how we can make the process even better next year.