Innovating to compete

Palm Computing has been busy integrating with former rival Handspring and churning out competitive and powerful new PDAs aimed at stalling the increasingly popular and affordable PocketPC-powered products.

Palm Redux

The past few months have been big for PocketPC makers with improved OS and applications from Microsoft and affordable models coming out from Viewsonic, Dell, Asus and Toshiba as well as updated flagship models from industry leader Hewlett-Packard.

Palm-powered devices, on the other hand, have seen a little of the limelight, thanks in part to Sony, whose new generation of inventive but poorly distributed Clié handhelds were released in Japan and well-received in the United States and Europe.

Breaking the silence, Palm and Handspring have reformed and are now to be called PalmOne. Palm will concentrate on making consumer and business PDAs and the Palm operating system, while Handspring’s contribution is expected to be centered on the emerging smart phone market where it has seen some degree of success with its Treo line of dual-band PDA-phones.

Three For All

Palm recently released updated models targeted at businesses as well as consumers. One aspect that Palm watchers will notice is that the pricing of the new devices is comparatively less than in the past, which is a sign of Palm’s effort to stay in the No. 1 PDA spot by being competitive in features and pricing.

Most notable of the new releases was the third iteration of its top-of-the-line PDA, the Tungsten T. The Tungsten T3’s biggest feature is its landscape-capable, high-resolution screen that is touted to be the largest in the Palm market.

The Tungsten T3 effectively offers 50 percent more screen real estate than current Palm-powered PDAs. This makes the P 22,900 (SRP) PDA a compelling proposition since the T3 can run MS Office natively; presenters need not carry laptops any longer to show PowerPoint presentations or larger Excel documents.

The T3 is helped along by innovative new software upgrades that allow for a virtual graffiti area (which disappears to enable the additional screen space), out-of-the-box e-mail synchronization with Microsoft Outlook, and improved views on agendas and appointments that make it possible to see more information without the need to scroll the screen.

The powerful 400MHz XScale processor ensures optimum performance. The Tungsten T3 also comes bundled with Bluetooth, 64 MB of RAM as well as advanced multimedia capabilities which can easily play back MPEG 4 video as well as MP3 audio files without slowing down.

Down the line in pricing and features is the Tungsten E model geared toward the midrange with 32MB RAM, an improved five-way navigator and a price tag of P11,900. The Tungsten E has a transflective 320 x 320 color display and a 126 MHz ARM processor.

In the Zire line, Palm’s consumer organizer brand, the monochrome Zire 21, now with an additional 6 MB RAM for a total of 8MB, replaces its hugely successful bare bones predecessor, the Palm Zire. Its SRP is P6,500. This is the PDA that PalmOne hopes will attract users of traditional and non-electronic organizers but who may not require the business solutions and savvy offered by the Tungsten line.

One Final Handspring

In the smart phone market, Handspring recently released what could be its final product prior to its absorption into PalmOne – the Treo 600 GSM/CDMA smart phone which replaces the Treo 270/300.

The Treo 600 has received a number of rave reviews, specifically for its unique but accessible design and its outstanding six-hour talk-time battery life. Its features include 850/900/1800/1900 MHz world phone capability, a 144 MHz ARM processor and 32MB RAM.

The Treo 600 embodies the strength of a GSM phone, an e-mail and Web-browsing device and an organizer with business applications.

With a built-in camera and Multimedia Messaging Service capability, the Treo 600 moves in on the Sony P800/P900 territory as a premium and multi-functional smart phone. It is not known when the Treo 600 is expected to be available locally and at what price range.