In the Handheld Device category, there was Blackberry and then there was everybody else. Research in Motion’s Blackberry 7100 crushed the other finalists, getting 85 percent of the total votes. The leftovers were split between Palm’s Treo 650, PalmOne’s Tungsten T5, HP’s iPaq 6315 and ASUSTeK Computer Inc.’s MyPal A730W.
Another one of our new categories, Malware Removal, saw a spirited two-horse dash that was finally won by Lavasoft’s Ad-Aware SE Professional Edition spyware removal software. Ad-Aware pulled away from second-place finisher Safer Networking’s Spybot Search and Destroy. Other finalists were Webroot’s Spy Sweeper Enterprise, PC Tools’ Spyware Doctor and Computer Associates’ eTrust PestPatrol Anti-Spyware.
SAS made another trip to the winner’s circle, this time in Datamation’s venerable Network & Systems Management Software category. The SAS IT Service Level Management software outpolled eIQnetworks Inc.’s SystemAnalyzer in a tight race. Coradiant Inc.’s TrueSight Real Transaction Monitor finished third, followed by Autoprof’s Policy Maker and Network Instruments LLC’s Observer.
Newbury Networks’ Wi-Fi Watchdog 3.0 was an easy winner in the Wireless Software category, topping runner-up Wireless Security Corp.’s WSC Guard 3.4. In a photo-finish for third place, Colligo Networks Inc.’s Colligo Workgroup Edition 3.3 edged Sendia Corp.’s Sendia Wireless SFA and InterLink Network Inc.’s LucidLink.
Over the next two weeks, Datamation will run stories about the winners in each of our 10 categories.