palmOne Releases Two New Zire Handhelds

wPageUp writes "palmOne today announced two new additions to their consumer Zire PDA line. According to PalmInfoCenter, the Zire 72 has a 1.2 MP digital camera, 32MB of ram and a 312MHz Intel processor for $299. On the low end side, the new Zire 31 is the first sub-$150 color handheld to include MP3 audio and a memory expansion slot."

Comments

Palm OS Cobalt?

[Jezza]

Okay, these are very sweet systems, BUT this seem to cut off the air supply of some of the "Pro" versions. So are we going to see some new "Pro" hardware from PalmOne? When will be see a Palm OS Cobalt (PalmOS6) system?

I really like the look of the Zire 72, but the new 31's colour looks a bit "iffy" in the pictures (like the colour of old BluTack). Anyone seen one of these in real life?

How do these stack up against the latest phones?

Re:Only EU has growing market for PDA's

[boogy nightmare]

Agreed, how ever for taking notes i use the voice recorder and then add it in later via the bluetooth link and software on the PC. This is where phones like the P900 (and to a lesser extent the p800) work, although more expensive they have the same input type as the PDA, with stylus and touch screen.

However when i use SMS the use of predictive texting has about an 80% first time hit rate and in the hands of a average texter is not a disadvantage over a small qwerty keyboard, seriously, if you have not watched some of the kids today type on those keyboards its very fast, i think one Japanese girl hit something like 95wpm.

Don't be stupid

[53cur!ty]

Palm comes out with a new unit every other week! They stop supporting/selling at the same rate to insure sales on the new units.

Don;t be stupid, pick one and wait for it to show up in Palm's outlet store. At least then you are not paying the over inflated price.

where the answers are

Just in time for sales slump

[N8F8]

Recent industry reporting seems to indicate a big slump in the PDA market. The trend is toward devices that incorporate cell phone features.

PalmOne

[Mr_Silver]

I considered submitting this story yesterday but thought that someone else already did.

Looking around the offices in the past 5 years I'm seeing less and less people using Palm's and those that are have the old Vx's or 50x series. Almost everyone who has a PDA these days has a PocketPC. Even I moved from a Vx to an iPaq and probably won't go back.

If I did then it would be if

1. Support of the fields that Outlook has is better than on a PocketPC. Sure I can install another application (KeySuite) but then I can't integrate that data with other applications.
2. A decent today screen with plugins. I don't want something flexible that allows me to define what my today screen shows and the order that it shows it.
3. Continious syncing. This is a big one for me. If I take my PDA out of the cradle then I want to know that it is up-to date at that very moment in time. This is especially important when I have someone else managing my diary so I don't necessarily know when I have to sync. I do not want to have to remember to press the "sync" button 5 minutes before I want to take the PDA to a meeting.

Palm kind of remind me of Apple, in the sense that they have only a few people making their hardware. Microsoft on the other hand has a large number of hardware manufacturers which means that they are pushing the specifications further and quicker than Palm are.

Camera, Bluetooth, wireless networking - all came from the PocketPC first because there was competition from the hardware manufacturers to differentiate their product from others. With Palm, there isn't quite so much of a need and so I get the feeling they're playing catch up (even though their screen resolution is better than the PocketPC's - but still no virtual grafitti area)