Seems China is becoming the PDA manufacturing capital

[Ed Hansberry]

<a href="http://www.taipeitimes.com/news/2002/06/05/story/0000139085">http://www.taipeitimes.com/news/2002/06/05/story/0000139085</a><br /><br />"Companies like Compal Electronics Inc and Mitac International Corp, traditional makers of notebook PCs, cellphones and PDAs, are adding the latest functions to their handhelds, including connections transforming them into phones, Wireless-LAN and 56k modems for Internet access, and other gadgets consumers are looking for -- and they are doing it at the lowest possible cost. Both companies produce PDAs in China, with designing and engineering in Taiwan. Compaq Computer Corp, now taken over by Hewlett-Packard Co, saw the writing on the wall years ago and hired High Tech Computer Corp, a Taiwanese PDA manufacturer, to make its popular iPaq machines. High Tech also leverages the Taiwan-China tech connection to design and manufacture its products."<br /><br />The point of course is lower prices, and the focus of PDA's at the Computex Taipei 2002 show this year seems to be Pocket PC's. <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif" /> Are we that much closer to a $300 Pocket PC? One with 32MB of RAM, color and a 200MHz processor?

[Timothy Rapson]

Who knows, maybe the big reports of last December were right (IDG?, Gartner?). They said that PPC prices were to drop $200 this year from an average selling price of $570 to $370. That would require another round of new products starting with the breakthrough price of $400 (list) for the Toshiba e310.

I was about to see price parity between the Palm OS and PPC 2002 with Toshiba E310 = Sony T615C and Sony NR series = Ipaq 3830. Alas, Sony has dropped the T615C price to $300 this week and we may have to wait a couple of months for new X-Scales and other models to see what prices do.

I was expecting to see a Compaq 2200 for the same price as the E310 soon, but with the release of the $500 list (I actually expect HP/Compaq to offer rebates as they always have on their base models to make the actual selling price identical to the e310) it is clear Compaq is waiting on the low power X-Scale.

What this all means is a big summer drop in prices AND probably a drop in sales as people realize that there is too much uncertainty over X-Scale delivery and features to buy now. The Palm PDA side is in the same place with people waiting on the sidelines for OS5. A dismal, confused Summer market followed by a very HOT Fall.