[T-Will]

Originally Posted by Ivan

Is it April 1 already? 8O

I had the same thought... :? If it was Apple buying Palm then I would know for sure that I went through a time warp and it was actually April 1st.

[T-Will]

Originally Posted by Ivan

Is it April 1 already? 8O

I had the same thought... :? If it was Apple buying Palm then I would know for sure that I went through a time warp and it was actually April 1st.

[kettle]

As a long time SPRINT PCS subscriber I'm not too worried about Palm shelving Handspring's phone/pda designes cause' there are so many other players in the market making SPRINT PCS phones... oh wait I'm screwed.

[scrinch]

Here's a link to a photo of the new Treo 600 from Treocentral. Looks like a mini Hitachi G1000. Hasn't the knock on the G1000 been its size?

Handspring has said that the GSM/GPRS version would be the first released (2003Q3), but this unit is CDMA and shown at a Sprint Users Forum this week in Dallas.

[frauen1]

Originally Posted by Foo Fighter

The now limited choice among PalmOS vendors could hurt PalmOS adoption in the corporate space. This may be a feather in the cap for Pocket PC, especially when you have Dell playing the scene...and they are strongly entrenched in the hearts and minds of IT departments the world over.

I disagree with this point. Sony really hasn't shown any interest in the enterprise market. Their strategy is very consumer-oriented. Palm is the only PalmOS vendor who has any real traction in the enterprise. Now enterprise seems to have more interest in converged devices, and a Palm-branded smart phone (Treo) could be the path that the Tungsten W started up.

(Of course, the real competition here is Java-enabled smartphones in the states and especially Symbian devices (read: Nokia) in Europe. Neither Handspring or Orange/Microsoft have had much success in these markets at this point, but don't count either of those out yet, it's still too soon.)

[AndrewLubinus89]

Three cheers for ppct! I love reading ppct every day even though I don't even have a ppc! I would love to get one (no $$$ :? ) but I still read it every day because of your wide coverage of news. I have a visor edge though but anyways,.....nice,

[cdunphy]

Originally Posted by Ed Hansberry

Too small IMHO. THose companies don't appear on any marketshare reports. Anyone being crammed down into the "other" line just isn't a significant player.

There are 2 significant Palm players - Palm and Sony.

Uhm, Ed - I hate to break it to you - but other than HP and Dell, ALL the Pocket PC licensees are DEEP into the "other" line on market share reports as well.


There are a lot of Pocket PC licensees, true. But very few of them are doing anything interesting other than cranking out clones. Hell - a lot of them are even using the same reference designs with just different plastic wrapped around them. <yawn>


Here is the current roster of "announced" Palm OS licensees:

+ Aceeca - Devices for the industrial and measurement market.

+ Acer - Very nifty devices for China, Asia, and Europe.

+ AlphaSmart - A cross between a laptop and a PDA, for the educational market.

+ Fossil - The worlds first full PDA-in-a-watch. On sale THIS month.

+ Garmin - The worlds first integrated GPS / PDA. Extremely cool device. On sale "soon"... (Garmin is the Id Software of the hardware world... "It is done when it is done...")

+ GSL - Doing a cool camera phone / PDA for asia and europe.

+ Handspring - Makes arguably the best converged phone / pda devices anywhere.

+ HuneTec / WebLink Wireless - Doing a small wireless messaging device that is surprisingly cool.

+ Kyocera - Cool clamshell PalmOS smartphones.

+ Legend - PDA's for China.

+ Palm SG - The worlds #1 (by far) handheld maker.

+ Samsung - Amazingly cool phones. The i500 is the first PDA / phone combo anywhere that actually looks and feels like a regular cell phone in your hand. The size is amazing.

+ Sony - Arguably the world's most inovative consumer electronics company.

+ Symbol - The world leader in industrial handhelds.

+ TapWave - This company is going to turn the gaming world on its ear...



Notice - not a clone maker in the bunch. Every PalmOS licensee is innovating, and exploring new markets, form factors, and functionality.

This is a night-and-day difference from the Pocket PC world.


- chris

[Fzara]

This is HUGE.

FOO!?! WHERE ARE YOU!? Did you not make a prediction that in 2003, HS will be bought by Palm Solutions Group!?

This is definitely big. I wonder what the effect will be for Palm.

[Ed Hansberry]

Originally Posted by cdunphy

Uhm, Ed - I hate to break it to you - but other than HP and Dell, ALL the Pocket PC licensees are DEEP into the "other" line on market share reports as well.

Toshiba is not in "other," at least not in any of the reports I've seen in the past 6 quarters.

But if you want to throw down a long list of names :roll: Pocket PC and Smartphone can do that too.
Siemens
Zayo
Alaska Cove
Casio
Viewsonic
Packard Bell
NEC
Acer
Yakuma
MyPal
Fujitsu Siemens
Eten
MiTAC
Legend
Samsung
Orange

Yes, some of these are clonish in their featureset, which has both positive and negative sides. I know when I buy any Pocket PC, it has a SIP, can play music, can do voice recording, email, etc. Palm has, IMHO, gone from a feature set that was too limited to a dizzying array of features that causes confusion.

Ask someone casually knowledgeable about Pocket PCs which one they should buy that can do voice recording, play music and has Excel. They will go "any of them."

Ask that to a casual Palm user. They will go "No clue. you need to go to the store and look at the features."

[heov]

what do smartphones have to do with ppcs? I was under the impression they were just wince variants, like hpc2k. Can smartphones2k2s run the same software as ppc w/o recompiling? just curious.

[reidme]

Originally Posted by Ed Hansberry

But if you want to throw down a long list of names :roll:

Don't roll your eyes Ed, you started it... :wink: