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RIM Blackberry is strong, but IMHO that's only due to 2 things:
- a keyboard
- an easy to use system
- unmetered email

Ie. it tries to serve customers instead of thinking about milking them dry. Not that it's not they long term goal (maybe) but they provide a decent service for a decent fee.

But that's just a functionnality-based success. Any WinCE, Palm or Zaurus call plan which would offer the same functionnality would quickly become as big. Time to think about new functions too - say unmetered instant messenging (like SMS but free!)

Note to cell phone operators : stop thinking about milking your customers dry. Start thinking about offering services, such as voip roaming (ie if my cellphone finds a wifi network, use sipphone instead of $lousy_gsm_provider - especially when roaming abroad !)

This is IMHO the key to success. Then whatever hardware or operating system that goes along, if it is not too lousy, will grow.

The Zaurus 6000 could have become big. The user interface needed only minor tweaking. If only it had had GSM built it (smartphone like) + some good voip software + a call plan where email and instant messenging would have been free...

The market is lagging not because of lack of functionnality or technical capabiliies (GPRS makes possible to receive calls at the same time you have a data connection on a multiplex-capable GSM phone) but only because a shared monopoly between shitty operators prevent this innovation from appearing. "what if it eats my profits?" is wrong spririt. With the same mentality horseless carriage ie cars would have never existed. "it will eat every competitor alive and grow my market share and thus skyrocket my profits" is right.

Where's entrepreunership and risk taking? I just see deep-coma business !

That's free advice from a disgruntled french cellphone customer.

Maybe to get a real computer, where he can flash the OS he want, run apache, perl, code on the go etc.

But you're right on the price. Far too expansive. Get a 6000L for $399 at amazon, and buy a big CF. You'll enjoy the local warranty (no fedex to Japan!) and a better screen. And you'll have to use wikipedia instead of the japaneese encyclopaedia anyway (I don't speak japanese you insensitive clod)

The battery won't be eaten by the CF hard drive - they are nearly as power efficient as "flash" CF

And anyway, I wouldn't trade my beloved 6000 (bluetooth AND wifi) for a C3000 ... or a C860 :-)

The 6000 has a far better screen, $399 on amazon with integrated wifi - and you can buy a big SD or CF mini hard drive if you need. $850 for a C3000? No way.

no support? What are you smoking?

I don't suppose people who buy Sharp laptops have to get all their software from Sharp too, do they? Do all Dell laptop owners buy all their software and games from Dell?

Sharp will honor their warranty. That's all they need to do. You can get all kinds of software for this device from other sources, as long as you have the hardware.

--Michael Spencer (An SL-C700 owner, considering buying this SL-C300)

See www.pdaXrom.org, this article on cross-compiling, Gentoo for Zaurus, the Zaurus Software Index, the Zaurus Message Board, Zaurus.spy.org, and last but definitely least the Zaurus User Group (which among much else has active discussion of where to buy the clamshells from).

It appears indeed that there is *no* hardware change in this model vs. the 760, which begs the question "why the name change"?

Zaurus Forum thread on the topic

I'm waiting for the same 7x0 form factor with built-in WiFi and Bluetooth, and perhaps a slighly larger screen. Although the 7x0's 640x480 screen is absolutely stunningly beautiful for a PDA, it could be about an inch wider and still fit in the enclosure.

Dynamism sounds like a good company, but if anybody wants to save $100 (and forgo the free shipping if something goes bad) you can get your Zaurus from conics.net. Check the forums for recommendations and localization instructions.

Here's another minor review and pictures via brighthand.

Also, a user at externe has posted about his first impressions in the Zaurus forums.

Good info in case the importer's/converter's website gets slashdotted.

Loomis

Regarding the low memory, some of us are trying to upgrade it to 64M. The problem is not hardware now (read - hardware hackersl could replace the 32M of RAM by a 64M chip) but software. We are trying to make the XScale recognize that much RAM. It may involve kernel and bootloader hacking since the easy solutions like mem=64 did not work. Any help is welcome.

And for those who may say the CPU is too slow, I personally did overclock mine to ~450 Mhz, and the RAM to ~150Mhz.No problem of any kind. I did also enable the Cache (disabled by default by Sharp for a risk of bug on some hardware revisions) so I can now play divx full screen at 20 fps without any problem. It is certainly better than carrying a huge laptop in the plane!

I just need the bigger 5600 (b500) battery a friend is bringing back from Japan and I'll be most happy with my Zaurus C700 PDA ;-)

PS: if you want to get one, check the C700 FAQ. We are filling it with tips from the forum.

Regarding the low memory, some of us are trying to upgrade it to 64M. The problem is not hardware now (read - hardware hackersl could replace the 32M of RAM by a 64M chip) but software. We are trying to make the XScale recognize that much RAM. It may involve kernel and bootloader hacking since the easy solutions like mem=64 did not work. Any help is welcome.

And for those who may say the CPU is too slow, I personally did overclock mine to ~450 Mhz, and the RAM to ~150Mhz.No problem of any kind. I did also enable the Cache (disabled by default by Sharp for a risk of bug on some hardware revisions) so I can now play divx full screen at 20 fps without any problem. It is certainly better than carrying a huge laptop in the plane!

I just need the bigger 5600 (b500) battery a friend is bringing back from Japan and I'll be most happy with my Zaurus C700 PDA ;-)

PS: if you want to get one, check the C700 FAQ. We are filling it with tips from the forum.