MICROSOFT isn't used to getting beaten into second place but that's exactly what's been happening in the palm-sized PC market over the last few years.

Despite launching its Windows CE operating system four years ago, a plethora of different platforms later (HPC, PPC and HPC Professional) Microsoft just hasn't broken into the market.

Instead, palm computing has swept all before it; especially in the enormous North American market where a Palm Pilot is the de facto small computing standard.

Microsoft has gone back to the drawing board and the result - now known as the Pocket PC - is a generational leap over anything the palm operating system can offer. Windows CE 3.0 has definitely come of age.

I was a CE convert from the moment the first hand-held PCs went on sale. Things got better with the second generation devices and now the Pocket PC has leapt ahead of the widely-admired Psion system.

I've owned and used a Phillips Nino Palm PC which uses Windows CE for nearly 12 months, so when Microsoft agreed to lend me a Hewlett Packard Jornada 545 I wasn't expecting too much.

Two weeks later and I'm sold on the new system.

Microsoft and its partners have wisely realised that it is a pointless task taking on the Palm Pilot directly. Instead of producing a basic device with a black and white screen for keeping contacts and notes away from the office, the Pocket PC is very much the power users' choice.

The Jornada uses a 133Mhz processor, a colour screen, stereo sound and highly advanced programmes. As there's no keyboard, the Jornada utilises handwriting recognition instead. My Nino came with an extra recognition programme called Smart Writer which attempted to convert my scribbles on the touch sensitive screen into plain English.

The Pocket PC uses a similar system only it does away with the need for training scribbles and the recognition rate is much higher. Just write on the screen with the plastic stylus, pause a moment and your scrawl becomes tiny electronic words as if by magic.

Pocket Excel also allows desktop worksheets to be carried in your pocket, worked on away from the office and synchronised when you return.

The Jornada came with several games including a pixel perfect version of Pac Man and a golf game that beats anything available for the Game Boy.

It also plays MP3 music in glorious stereo and extra tunes can be downloaded from the Net or via your desktop PC. All the software is provided on the HP "extras" CD ROM that comes in the box.

The Jornada can also be synchronised via a USB port as well as the traditional serial port. Again everything you need is in the box.

More than £300 may seem like a lot for something that resembles Captain Kirk's communicator but the Jornada is only a few pounds more expensive than the colour Palm Pilot yet it is a far more capable machine. It's not a toy, either, in this country the Post Office and Avis car rentals are both using Pocket PCs to automate delivery and service.

On the evidence so far, Windows CE 3.0 and the Pocket PC deserve to succeed. Who would bet against Bill Gates now?