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Personal Data Assistants
Many choices for the first time buyer
| John Woody is a net working communications consultant specializing in small office, home office networks, training setup, and internet connectivity. |
| Michael Espinoza is owner of Technology Coaching, a training and consulting firm that specializes in the PDA market. He co-chairs the PDA SIG with John Woody. |
|
The
handheld computer market is growing at a fast pace with many choices for
the 1st time purchaser or the for those individuals who wish to upgrade
an old handheld. The current offering from Palm is Zire it does not necessarily
bring anything new to the internal Palm software but it does bring a new
street price of $99. This is the first time Palm has entered the market
with a new device in that price range. They have released products that
end up in this price range after some time on the market; this shows how
the handheld market is changing and becoming more competitive. The
Zire is going to be a mainstream marketed product. What I mean by that
is it will be sold all over in, Kmart’s, Wal-Mart’s, Targets…. It is for
those individuals who’s focus is on the two main uses of a Palm, scheduling
and phone numbers. It has two buttons in the front of the unit as opposed
to the four buttons that previous units have had; hence the focus on the
two most popular applications, the calendar and contacts. Here are the
specs Palm highlights on its web site:
Zire
 Sony
continues its introductions of Palm OS based handheld. Two of the latest
Sony handhelds, PEG-SL10 and the PEG-SJ20 takes entry-level units to a
new level of features. Sony continues to one-up Palm in its units with
more memory and a better screen resolution. Here is a short summary of
the specs Sony highlights of the two units:
Handspring Treo 90
Palm OS devices are not the only new handhelds on the market. The Pocket PC has also had some new entries that should be noted. The first of these is the Viewsonic Pocket PC V35 which should have a street price in the $299 range. This is great for consumers because the average price of pocket PC units seems to be coming down substantially.. The following are the specs on Viewsonic’s Web site: Viewsonic Pocket PC V35
Toshiba GENIO e550G
Fujitsu Loox 600 There have been a lot of reports of other new Pocket PCs that will probably not hit the market until after you read this column. These include handhelds from Dell, HP and Fujitsu. To summarize what is expected from this ($500 est.) Fujitsu device:
The details on the Dell are sketchier but this is what is expected based on information that has been flying around the Web, so nothing is confirmed. They are:
HP has also announced that it will release two new devices before the end of the year. According to FCC documents, HP's new iPaq will have the following:
These are details from the FCC documents and HP representative have confirmed a device with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi will be available for the holidays, but would not say anymore. This column has focused on new and upcoming Palm OS and Pocket PC devices. Another category of handheld device is starting to hit the market: Smart Phones. These Smart phones are using the Palm OS and the Pocket PC OS. There are a few smart phones that do not use either OS but in future columns I will concentrate on the units with these two operating systems. For those of you who have held off on getting a handheld computer because you don’t want to carry around another device, the Smart Phone could be the answer to your problem. I will write more about these Smart Phones in the future, however if you are currently in the market to purchase a handheld computer just remember there are many devices to choose from. So do a little research to find the right device for all your needs. |
The
latest from Handspring Treo 90, takes a different twist in not using graffiti
and using a keyboard instead. It is a departure from the norm and only
time will tell if the built in keyboard become the standard. These are
the specs that Handsprings highlights:
Alamo PC Organization, Inc.
San Antonio, TX USA