Dell does $199 Pocket PC!

[Ed Hansberry]

<a href="http://news.com.com/2100-1040-961283.html?tag=fd_top_1">http://news.com.com/2100-1040-961283.html?tag=fd_top_1</a><br /><br />Dude! You're... oh, you know. :wink: Dell will show two Pocket PCs this fall and one will be <b><i>$199</i></b>. 8O "Both handhelds are expected to be put on display at the Comdex Fall 2002 tradeshow in November, sources said. One handheld, which will incorporate a 300MHz Intel XScale processor, will sell for $199. The other handheld will include a 400MHz Intel XScale processor and sell for $299." I would also presume the 300MHz device will have 32MB of RAM and the $400MHz device would be the 64MB device we've seen.<br /><br />If this holds up, Dell isn't firing a shot across HP's bow. They are aiming their cannon right at the hull. Source: Thomas22.

[ThomasC22]

Well, and then match that with this:

http://www.pocketpctools.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=220

and if both hold true, well, HPaq is probably sunk.

The only thing I wonder about is this...is Dell going to charge an extra $100 simply for the faster processor? Or were the previous rumours about built in Wireless true?

It's going to be an interesting few months...

[Ed Hansberry]

I have to wonder if the low end device will have dual slots. They could also save money with a 12 bit vs 16 bit screen. I don't think HP is sunk. They have the 2200 coming.

You know who I think is sunk? Someone selling a $499 16MB 200MHz single slot non-multitasking device. Who would that be.... where did I put that press release....? :wink:

[Paragon]

So let me know if I have my facts straight... I can buy an Ipaq for $550.00-$650.00 (ya, ya, I know you bought one for X dollars) with a transflective screen Xscale processor, and a single SD slot OR I can buy a Dell for $300.00 with a transflective screen, Xscale processor, and TWO yes TWO expansion slots an SD, and a CF. Somehow I don't see sleeve expandability being worth that much...call me a fool :)

Dave

[Ed Hansberry]

So let me know if I have my facts straight... I can buy an Ipaq for $550.00-$650.00

I agree 100%. That model dies the day the Dell ships. $400 max for that type of device going forward.

[Jason Dunn]

$199? Holy crap - and here I thought the $299 price point was going to be the big shock of the year...

[Paragon]

I agree 100%. That model dies the day the Dell ships. $400 max for that type of device going forward.

I don't know about you Ed, but I think Dell getting into the Pocket PC market is beginning to look like one of the best things to happen to it in a long time. Real competition!

Dave

[Paragon]

Hey, does anyone remember that company...I think their name was Palm. They used to make sub $200.00 PDA's but Dell came along and started selling PPCs for the same kind of money and they went down the tubes....anybody remember them? :D

Dave

[JonnoB]

I thought I would be first to hear. I am at the Microsoft Exchange Conference in Anaheim and was talking to the mobile folks (some of the MS employees are clueless - sorry)... and a few of the more intelligent people (like Dale Coffing - not even a MS employee) were talking about the Clemente and other devices. The comment made was that the price was going to be even lower than people expected. A few other tidbits I picked up.

1) A Swedish company is going to show a PPC PE with WiFi, BT, and dual slots all integrated. I am going to try and sneak a peak at 11am at the MS booth when they bring it over to the MS booth for a phone demo.
2) Two different Toshiba sub-companies designed the 550G and e740 and are competing with each other. Toshiba North America is pissed that the Japanese group that designed the 550G is marketing it to CompUSA.
3) There will be an e750 (or e760) Toshiba with fixes in how the video memory is shadowed. Probably more XScale fixes too.
4) Smartphone 2002 devices are definately on the way with Europe getting them next quarter and North America first calendar quarter 2003.

[ThomasC22]

I have to wonder if the low end device will have dual slots. They could also save money with a 12 bit vs 16 bit screen. I don't think HP is sunk. They have the 2200 coming.

Well, and again I'm making a big leap here, but if the PDAFrance document is accurate than I think the only difference between the models is the processor and the memory (being that in the PDAFrance specs those were the only factors that varied). That being said, there are some very odd things about the specs given (QVGA?) so I don't know.

But I would assume that a different screen or an additional slot would represent more than a $100 difference (my theory being one of the ways they're keeping the price down is by using a LOT of common components between the two).

I do have to say this price does make me a little uneasy about Quality control concerns...but then again...Dell's always been good with warranties too!

Oh, and I guess we know why all those manufacturers were so eager to turn Dell down now :)

[Ed Hansberry]

That being said, there are some very odd things about the specs given (QVGA?) so I don't know.

All PPCs are QVGA.

[Xaximus]

Hmm, this is the sort of thing that may lead me to buy my first Pocket PC :D. It's about darn time.

[ThomasC22]

That being said, there are some very odd things about the specs given (QVGA?) so I don't know.

All PPCs are QVGA.

Oh...I guess I missed that in the 400 threads about what Transflective is :wink:

[Paragon]

Oh...I guess I missed that in the 400 threads about what Transflective is :wink:

:D Good one! I think I missed it too.

Dave

[Jonathon Watkins]

Oh...I guess I missed that in the 400 threads about what Transflective is :wink:

:D Good one! I think I missed it too.

Dave

You lucky thing! :wink: However....... it all depends on what you call it. Most PPC screens are transflexive - the real deal comes when they are backlit!

Anyway - this is Great news! The more the merrier. Go Dell, GO! Drive them prices down and the specs up! :D :D :D

[R K]

Aww, it's only got a 3.5 screen.
So what if I payed $300 more for an extra 0.3" screen size increase while deducting a CompactFlash slot?

Now let's hope Dell and Viewsonic aren't playing a Fujitsu Loox on us and giving us sidelit screens. Before the Loox came out, it was common knowledge that transreflective meant backlit, (despite what the more technically inclined might say).

[GO-TRIBE]

First of all, I used to be a long time PDABuzz user (gocheif) but am now a convert.

All I want to say is that the new Dell PPC may verywell lower PPC prices :lol: , but it will not sink the iPaq. Why? Well, first compare specs; the Dell is bigger and heavier. The iPaq 2200 will be MUCH smaller and lighter than the Dell. Also, the iPaq has such things as the ambient light sensor and expansion pack system that the Dell does not, and we're still just talking about 3600 series iPaqs. From the images I've seen, the Dell PPC's size and quality (from what you can see) remind me of the Philips Nino 500 Palm Size PC. And don't forget, PDAs are the kind of thing that many people impulse buy at a store. Even if it was $199, people like to touch and play with a PDA at Best Buy before they purchase and Dell has a problem there.

[R K]

Translating the metric measurements into US measurements gives us the following details.

Dell Pocket PC
Size: 5.12" x 3.15" x 0.67"
Weight: 6.5oz

These are pretty similar to the original iPAQ H3600 specs, which are.

iPAQ H3600 Series Pocket PC
Size: 5.11" x 3.28" x 0.62"
Weight: 6.3oz

The Dell specs were converted from the PDAFrance specs mentioned in the second post. The iPAQ specs were produced from my own memory.

[Timothy Rapson]

Dell is absolutely swinging for the fence here. This price means that they are effectively make $0 on each PPC. Compaq pays HTC $200 for Ipaqs. Dells bids demanded a price of $170, which Wiztron took. By the time Dell prints a book, pays shipping to US, and other whatnot, they are not going to make money on the $200 model. Then again, I don't think Dell made anything selling me my Clie for $489.10 when the wholesale price they paid Sony was $480.

But, this is the amazing thing about Dell. They don't have overhead. Like Ed and the writer in the other Dell thread today pointed out, they get your money when they ship but don't pay for parts and such until 15-90 days later. Compaq, HP, Toshiba don't do this. PDAs have always seemed to me like the perfect product for 100% WWW sales. Geeks buy them and geeks are comfortable buying over the Web. They ship easily (practically no moving parts). They have practically no DOAs like desktops have had problems with in the past (though this was probably overcome some time ago).

If this is the price and these are the specs, Dell will be well on the way to dominating the PDA world as they currently do the PC. And what a nice world this will be for us. No more making some exec in Silicon valley a 40% profit margin.

What is next? Printers for sure. TVs? CD players? Ipod clone? Who can stop a company that can sell the latest technology at a 2% profit margin? Maybe the Internet will own retail someday after all.

[mookie123]

Holy Radon, Batman! That is some cheap PDA. I need to get two of those now.

[GO-TRIBE]

Dell's own specs found Here (http://www.pocketpctools.com/images/dell/dell2-l.jpg) say 5.1" x 3.2 " x 0.7 and if you look at the images on PDAFrance, it looks thick. The iPaq seems smaller than it really is because almost every edge is curved and refined.

[Gallivant]

The only thing I have to ask is:

It says it's got a 1440 mAh battery. What's usual? I need a good long life if I'm going to use this thing as an MP3 player, note-taker, and eBook reader, so if this turns out to be comparable to, say, the Maestro, it'll be no-go for me.

[Jonathan1]

Nice new hardware.....very nice. To bad the OS that it is running is close to 2 1/2 years old. :(

When is MS going to get off their bloated butt and give us a real update to the Pocket PC and not that .5 upgrade that _IS_ Pocket PC 2002.

[JonnoB]

Nice new hardware.....very nice. To bad the OS that it is running is close to 2 1/2 years old. :(

When is MS going to get off their bloated butt and give us a real update to the Pocket PC and not that .5 upgrade that _IS_ Pocket PC 2002.

Microsoft told me today (at MEC 2002) that EUU3 for 2002 is released to manufacturers and we should see it soon. The PPC 2003 OS based on .Net will ship Q1CY03 to manufacturers and then be in devices shortly thereafter. It will still fit in 24MB ROM. I have no other details.

[R K]

The Compaq iPAQ H3800/H3900 Series has a 1400mAh battery.
It's good battery life. One hour of music with the display turned off uses up only about 5% of the battery charge.
That adds up to about 19 hours of music through the headphone jack.

[Ed Hansberry]

Forget $199. This thing will go for $149. You know how Dell is always giving something away with their PC's. Free Shipping ($30-100), free 128MB RAM upgrade, 20GB HD size boost, 100-200MHz processor speed jump, printer, etc. I can easily see

Order before Oct 12 and get a Dell Pocket PC with 32MB of RAM and full color screen for only $149! Limited time offer! The perfect companion to your PC. Keep your most critical information with you at all times. Transfer music from your PC to listen to while on the go. Read and write emails away from your PC and send them out when you get back home! Includes Microsoft Outlook 2000!


Oh baby. This will change so much.

[Paragon]

Ed, you're not makin' this stuff up are you? I don't think Mr. Dell is going to like your ad campaign if you are. :)

Dave

[PhatCohiba]

Are we going to get:

1) Better web browsing
2) Better SMB / NetBIOS networking
3) HTML support in mail?

etc.

[Gallivant]

Wow.

If that "foldable keyboard" turns out to be worth a damn, and there aren't iPaq-esque QC issues...

Dude. I'm gettin' a Dell!

[Ed Hansberry]

Ed, you're not makin' this stuff up are you? I don't think Mr. Dell is going to like your ad campaign if you are. :)

Why not? They have a big splash right now for a 4550 Dimension:
• Free 3-5 day shipping
• Free CD Burner in the 2nd bay
• Free flat panel monitor upgrade
• 90 days same as cash
• Ends Wednesday

Why not a lowball PPC price in a PC/Laptop bundle?

[mookie123]

I am stumped. This is the equivalent of somebody dropping a thermonuclear device into the PDA market. I can feel Palm's Inc's shiver down their spine. (and other manufacturer for that matter)

$199, I dont' care what it comes with as long as it's Xscale, have SD/CF and the screen is usable. Get a 512Mb CF, this could make the ultimate MP3 machine (well maybe not, at that price who knows what sort of audio quality it has)

[ThomasC22]

Are we going to get:

1) Better web browsing
2) Better SMB / NetBIOS networking
3) HTML support in mail?

etc.

Well, I think you knew the answer to your question before you asked it but you do remind me of a good point.

The really scary part of this is that PocketPCs (and PDAs in general) are moving out of the innovation phase and into the mass production phase. Now, does this mean there will be no further innovation? No, but it does mean that innovations will probably start (and in fact already have started) coming at a slower pace.

Sad really, but perhaps a small price to pay for me being able to (if all this holds up) outfit my whole organization with PPCs for a reasonable price.

[mar2k]

8O $199 Pocket PCs? Just when the price of Palms are going way up the price of Pocket PCs are falling down to ridiculously low levels. Not good news for financially troubled Palm, one would think, at least the hardware side. Joe Consumer is not going to overlook the fact he can buy 2 units for less than the price of one of the new Palms if this holds true.

Boy, was this needed to give HP a swift kick in the pants and a big dose of reality as well. They have been gouging us for a while on the new iPaq and people are paying their ridiculous prices. Its a Pocket PC, not a Tablet PC!

[Ed Hansberry]

Look at Dell's competition in the $199 range

Palm M130 - $249 - 8MB, 12 bit color, no audio, no voice recording
Palm M125 - $149 - same as 130 but grayscale, no audio, no voice recording
Sony SJ20 - $199 - grayscale, 16MB RAM, no audio, no voice recording
Sony SJ30 - $299 - color, 16MB RAM, no audio, no voice recording

On one can touch this for under $399 right now. the closest is the iPAQ 2200. It will ahve to come in at the low end of their $200-$400 range.

[Paragon]

Why not a lowball PPC price in a PC/Laptop bundle?

Could be? It does make a great 'loss leader'

Dave

[GadgetDave]

Now, does this mean there will be no further innovation? No, but it does mean that innovations will probably start (and in fact already have started) coming at a slower pace.

Not sure I agree with that. :wink:

One stumbling block to "innovation" in the PPC is not hardware, but the fact that the devices have been too pricey for organizations to buy a bunch of them - so there's been less software developed for them.

Don't get me wrong - there's a bunch of great software out there, and more being written every day. But I know when my company will buy a couple of hundred of them for field engineers, we'll find (even without looking) many more uses and pieces of software we can write for them. As will many other companies. Plus, that will attract other commerical software teams, and help many of the "small" vendors out there building great stuff today!

[Foo Fighter]

Dell will show two Pocket PCs this fall and one will be $199.

To quote a line from Hamlet: Act II, Scene VI: "HOLY F****ING CHRIST!" 8O 8O 8O 8O

Have I been drinking...again? :drinking:

[Foo Fighter]

I just have to ask this question.....does the $199 model have a transflective display? :P

[rubberdemon]

This is tremendously interesting - and welcome. I'm curious about the talk about Dell's business model, however. They currently assemble your computer from scratch when you order it, getting components in a just in time manner, which enables them to save all sorts of money as previously discussed. But PPCs are pre-assembled devices, correct? So they will be getting boxes of them from Taiwan - not parts from a various manufacturers. Will Wistron then take any losses from having these on hand? Will Dell?? (not that they'll stay on hand for long).

[mememe]

Dell is absolutely swinging for the fence here. This price means that they are effectively make $0 on each PPC. Compaq pays HTC $200 for Ipaqs. Dells bids demanded a price of $170, which Wiztron took. By the time Dell prints a book, pays shipping to US, and other whatnot, they are not going to make money on the $200 model. Then again, I don't think Dell made anything selling me my Clie for $489.10 when the wholesale price they paid Sony was $480.

But, this is the amazing thing about Dell. They don't have overhead. Like Ed and the writer in the other Dell thread today pointed out, they get your money when they ship but don't pay for parts and such until 15-90 days later. Compaq, HP, Toshiba don't do this. PDAs have always seemed to me like the perfect product for 100% WWW sales. Geeks buy them and geeks are comfortable buying over the Web. They ship easily (practically no moving parts). They have practically no DOAs like desktops have had problems with in the past (though this was probably overcome some time ago).

If this is the price and these are the specs, Dell will be well on the way to dominating the PDA world as they currently do the PC. And what a nice world this will be for us. No more making some exec in Silicon valley a 40% profit margin.

What is next? Printers for sure. TVs? CD players? Ipod clone? Who can stop a company that can sell the latest technology at a 2% profit margin? Maybe the Internet will own retail someday after all.

The consumer...

[PPCRules]

A pretty long thread for such little substantiated eveidence that there is anything to the $199 report ...

Call me a skeptic, but I will be in line (rather, on-line) to get one of these.

Also, a lot of "but HP has the 2200" comments. Do we have any details on that offering?

[smoke]

I can't wait for a real hands-on review of both devices to determine if it matches the hype.

But now, the dilemma----Should I dump my 3900 and all the sleds on Ebay now?... before the reviews and EVERYONE dumps their old PPC's, driving down the prices...or wait?

Smoke

[Paragon]

To quote a line from Hamlet: Act II, Scene VI: "HOLY F****ING CHRIST!" 8O 8O 8O 8O

I think you have that wrong Foo that was Scene V. Scene VI was the guys at Palm making a mess of the tops of their shoes, as their life passed before them. :)

Dave

[Foo Fighter]

Hey, HP is offering a $50 rebate on the iPaq 3950, which brings the price down to $599. Any takers...*crickets chirping*....?

Anyone...anyone?

[st63z]

New HP vs. Dell, Carly vs. Michael, it's gonna be good. CNet said HP's now taking the offensive against Dell on other fronts like business laptops, etc. Wonder if it'll be good for us if HP, IBM, Dell merge...

Oh, yea there's also that Palm vs. PPC battle, I guess...

[toshtoshtosh]

Can some of the MVPs here, or whatever they're called ("people who can get intelligent answers from large corporations") find out what EUU3 includes?

Thanks.

[Foo Fighter]

I think you have that wrong Foo that was Scene V. Scene VI was the guys at Palm making a mess of the tops of their shoes, as their life passed before them. :)

"Take thy stylus from out my heart, and take thy form factor from off my door!

Quoth the Dell Dude, "Nevermore."

[Paragon]

So, Foo, are you gettin' a.........

[Foo Fighter]

So, Foo, are you gettin' a.........

I'll wait for the reviews to come out. I was planning on purchasing a Tungsten...but now it's getting harder and harder for me to justify paying $500 for PalmOS device.

[Paragon]

8O Dude, you're......... not actually think about buying a Pocket PC. Oh man, Palm is done. What can be left for them now?

Dave

[Ed Hansberry]

Somebody should write a FAQ for PPCthought forum so people are not repeating old question over and over...........and over again.

transreflective would be one good candidate.
Fine - but different manufactures use different terms for the same thing. An agreed definition would be good- that is why I am being specific about backlit transreflective - as opposed to reflective transreflective.

It is transflective, not transreflective. And if the box is mislabled, tough noogies. :lol: There is no such thing as frontlit transflective or backlit reflective transreflective or sidelit trans-retransflective or any of that.

Front/side reflective or backlit transflective.

[bdeli]

Holy smokes...waiting to get the official specs for the DELL, but i bet my a** that all the other companies like HP will lower their ultra expensive prices by xmas!

[Jason Dunn]

Can some of the MVPs here, or whatever they're called ("people who can get intelligent answers from large corporations") find out what EUU3 includes?

We're under NDA for that, so unfortunately if/when the info leaks, it won't be from us. Sorry. :cry:

[Take1]

I don't think the iPAQ will be the clear winner come Spring of 2003. It looks like HP is going to expect the iPAQ name to carry them over. After all, Palm's gotten away with it year after year.

I think Dell's got the right idea and it will be interesting to see how well this does. The only thing that could cripple sales will be a lack of retail presence.

[Jonathan1]

One aspect of Dell that has only been slightly alluded to here. Their products can only be purchased online. This could seriously hurt their sales this holiday season. Let me ask everyone here. How many of you are willing to buy a PDA without holding one in your hand at least once? I myself need to do this prior to purchasing anything mobile. Be it Cell phone, PDA, MP3 player, etc. I need to know how it weighs in my hand. How well it fits in my pocket. Measurements are all well and fine but there is no accounting for actually holding the device in your hand. Hopefully someone will eventually have one of these at our Pocket PC user group because I don’t buy til I try. Plus there is no accounting for the Best Buy factor. Those users who go shopping in the real world rather then online. Think about it a second where is the first place Joe Consumer is going to go looking for a PDA? Do you think its dell.com? More likely Best Buy, CompUSA, Circuit City, and the like. HP could have a serious edge this fall. That is unless Dell advertises the hell out of this device so that during the holidays everyone and their mother knows that Dell is in the PDA business now.

[Rirath]

Well, personally I'm not joining in the cheers for Dell. I've never liked Dell much, no matter how many times they have their name praised in song. The rampant quoting of /that/ commercial lost all appeal long ago. That ad campaign hurt, and is still hurting, Dell's professional image with every single line that moron utters. Let us pray the Dell Dude and Mac Girl never, EVER, produce an offspring.

Personally I'm much more excited about the high end Ipaq's coming out, with wireless and security and such. A $199 pocket pc is great for the people who don't care about the specs... but we're talking 300mhz Xscale here. People were crying about 400 mhz, much less 300. Am I nuts or is this a step backwards? And sure, $299 for a 400mhz is indeed cheap... but a Pocket PC isn't exactly something I plan to replace frequently like a video card. I'd rather pay for one of the top of the line quality Ipaqs once and have it last, not fade from memory once the next bargain PPC hits the market. Oh well, maybe they will indeed cause drop prices... but I doubt it will be anything to cheer about.

Judging by the poll, it seems I'm not the only one waiting for the wireless Ipaq. In any case, I hope to get a new PPC by the end of the month... so I hope somebody does something other than hype.

[Dave Conger]

Hey, HP is offering a $50 rebate on the iPaq 3950, which brings the price down to $599. Any takers...

Bringing the price down to $499. You can pick up a 3950 at some places for $550. Minus the $50 rebate (though it expired on the 5th) would brings it down to $499.

Or you could get the 3970 for $599 after the same rebate.

What a far cry from the $699 and $749 HP has the listed as on their site.

[CoffeeKid]

$199, I dont' care what it comes with as long as it's Xscale, have SD/CF and the screen is usable. Get a 512Mb CF, this could make the ultimate MP3 machine (well maybe not, at that price who knows what sort of audio quality it has)

I already own the ultimate mp3 machine. It's called an iPod :)

But, while I've been twiddlin' my thumbs, waiting for the ideal PPC/GSM/GPRS combo package (it still doesn't exist, and won't until you can plug the thing into a notebook computer and wirelessly access the Internet from your notebook using the phone/pda's gprs signal), dude, I may very well be getting a Dell as well.

Mark

[CoffeeKid]

But now, the dilemma----Should I dump my 3900 and all the sleds on Ebay now?... before the reviews and EVERYONE dumps their old PPC's, driving down the prices...or wait?

I'm seriously considering it myself. I have a 3600 series with a custom Vaja / Whitney sleeve, and my 3600 has a brand new battery and screen (warranty repair a few months ago). eBaying it today will probably garner an extra hun or so as compared to a month from now.

Mark

[Jonathon Watkins]

Happy days - happy days - now we just need to see if the transfexive screen is backlit.......

[Ed Hansberry]

Well, personally I'm not joining in the cheers for Dell. I've never liked Dell much, no matter how many times they have their name praised in song. The rampant quoting of /that/ commercial lost all appeal long ago. That ad campaign hurt, and is still hurting, Dell's professional image with every single line that moron utters. Let us pray the Dell Dude and Mac Girl never, EVER, produce an offspring.
Dell's consumer sales skyrocketed when the Steven ads came out and IT departments can separate a humerous consumer campaign from quality product, which is why Dell's marketshare is still increasing year over year.

[Ed Hansberry]

Happy days - happy days - now we just need to see if the transfexive screen is backlit.......
All transflective screens are backlit. Reflective's are sidelist. There is a difference. See http://www.brighthand.com/article/ScreenTechnology for a detailed discussion, but the crux of it is, a transflective screen is a reflective screen that is translucent and allows light to pass through. Put a backlight behind a reflective screen and you won't see it.

[Jonathon Watkins]

Happy days - happy days - now we just need to see if the transfexive screen is backlit.......
All transflective screens are backlit. Reflective's are sidelist. There is a difference. See http://www.brighthand.com/article/ScreenTechnology for a detailed discussion, but the crux of it is, a transflective screen is a reflective screen that is translucent and allows light to pass through. Put a backlight behind a reflective screen and you won't see it.

OK :) I know we are going over this old discussion again, but I remember the final conclusion of the discussions being that the LOOX and most current displays are transflective, but not back-lit. The spec of the LOOX and IPAQ do say that they are transflective. Just not backlit. There are no agreed ways of naming the screen tech it seems. I bought the LOOX partially as it said on the packaging that it was transflective - it was - just not backlit. :evil:

[mookie123]

Somebody should write a FAQ for PPCthought forum so people are not repeating old question over and over...........and over again.

transreflective would be one good candidate.

[Jonathon Watkins]

Somebody should write a FAQ for PPCthought forum so people are not repeating old question over and over...........and over again.

transreflective would be one good candidate.
Fine - but different manufactures use different terms for the same thing. An agreed definition would be good- that is why I am being specific about backlit transreflective - as opposed to reflective transreflective.

[toshtoshtosh]

Oh god! The dreaded transflective sidelit vs reflective debate...

[hk_traveller]

I thought I would be first to hear. I am at the Microsoft Exchange Conference in Anaheim and was talking to the mobile folks (some of the MS employees are clueless - sorry)... and a few of the more intelligent people (like Dale Coffing - not even a MS employee) were talking about the Clemente and other devices. The comment made was that the price was going to be even lower than people expected. A few other tidbits I picked up.

1) A Swedish company is going to show a PPC PE with WiFi, BT, and dual slots all integrated. I am going to try and sneak a peak at 11am at the MS booth when they bring it over to the MS booth for a phone demo.
2) Two different Toshiba sub-companies designed the 550G and e740 and are competing with each other. Toshiba North America is pissed that the Japanese group that designed the 550G is marketing it to CompUSA.
3) There will be an e750 (or e760) Toshiba with fixes in how the video memory is shadowed. Probably more XScale fixes too.
4) Smartphone 2002 devices are definately on the way with Europe getting them next quarter and North America first calendar quarter 2003.

I am interested about the Swedish model you mentioned with WiFi,... all integrated. Is it a phone edition?

Also do you know the release time schedule of e750/e760?

Thanks!

[hk_traveller]

Look at Dell's competition in the $199 range

Palm M130 - $249 - 8MB, 12 bit color, no audio, no voice recording
Palm M125 - $149 - same as 130 but grayscale, no audio, no voice recording
Sony SJ20 - $199 - grayscale, 16MB RAM, no audio, no voice recording
Sony SJ30 - $299 - color, 16MB RAM, no audio, no voice recording

On one can touch this for under $399 right now. the closest is the iPAQ 2200. It will ahve to come in at the low end of their $200-$400 range.

Yes the comparison is clear. Either Dell's specification is not true or the price is not true. In that price range there are no competitors. Perhaps the price for the new Dell ppc should be $399.

[st63z]

The rampant quoting of /that/ commercial lost all appeal long ago. That ad campaign hurt, and is still hurting, Dell's professional image with every single line that moron utters. Let us pray the Dell Dude and Mac Girl never, EVER, produce an offspring.


There's that new commercial with the two bonehead trainees, and the girl who said something like "Yeah, they could call 1-800-they-already-do-that!" We wouldn't mind her as the new Dell spokeswoman :D