Comments on: Opinion: Why Sony should (Memory) Stick with the Palm OS

And AMEN BROTHER!

I don't think Sony will give a hoot, but you do speak for alot of us Clie owners.

NetFrontLinux - the next major cellphone OS?: http://www.palminfocenter.com/comment_view.asp?ID=8060#111823

Take care, Buddy.

TVoR

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Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.
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The Palm eCONomy = Communism™

The Great Palm Swindle: http://www.palminfocenter.com/comment_view.asp?ID=7864#108038

NetFrontLinux - the next major cellphone OS?: http://www.palminfocenter.com/comment_view.asp?ID=8060#111823

From a Reuters report:
"Shipments of digital cameras are expected to top 20 million units in 2005, up from 17.6 million, with revenue projected to rise to $5 billion from $4.5 billion."

From bizjournal.com (http://www.bizjournals.com/industries/high_tech/internet/2005/01/17/eastbay_story6.html)
"Sales of PDAs in 2004 are now expected to total just 10.8 million - one-third of what was originally forecast - according to IDC."

And finally from ITfacts.com
http://www.itfacts.biz/index.php?id=P715
"Cameras accounted for about 60% of demand worldwide for flash memory cards in 2003, according to research firm IDC. Camera shipments are expected to increase 27% to about 55 mil this year, from 43 mil worldwide last year. By 2007, shipments are projected to reach 81 mil. The worldwide flash memory card market generated $1.7 bil in revenue in 2002, and that total increased by more than 100% last year, according to IDC estimates."

Sony saw the writing on the wall, and for once, rather than throw money at a losing proposition, they jumped ship. This isn't unusual as companies have histories of failed devices. While "death" may be an overly dramatic term to characterize the PDA market, you have to admit that it's no where near the 40-50 million unit market as projected in 2001. Even with introductions of new models with incremental changes, they would only be delaying the inevitable.

From a story on itfacts.biz:
"IDC's 2004 mobile devices end-user survey demonstrates that handhelds still dominate company mobility strategies, with over 50% of respondents indicating the PDA as the preferred mobile device as opposed to a voice-centric smart phone or a PDA with telephony capability..."

Link:http://www.itfacts.biz/index.php?id=P2037

Which isn't to say that they won't eventually get a clue, just that it will take some time. Operating within a reality-based corporate budget is much different than say, an allowance.

Sony Ericsson is successfully selling smartphones because they know how to capitalize on a sector with high demand and growth potential. I'm using one right now (s700i). I would hardly call it crippled by Symbian. And I don't think it would be any better with Palm OS or Windows Mobile or any other operating system. I really like this phone so far.

As for predicting the death of the PDA market, there is nothing to predict. It has been in a steady state of decline for over 8 quarters. Worldwide sales have slowed since early 2003. Welcome to 2005. Give credit to Sony for figuring it out early.

If you really think the s700i wouldn't be better with PalmOS, then I'd have to assume you don't know what you're talking about. Or else you use the phone almost exclusively as a PHONE rather than a PDA.

And if you don't think it would be better to have a phone with tens of thousands of available apps, stable syncing software and a powerful developer community instead of the tragedy known as Symbian, then I suppose this proves ignorance is bliss. Enjoy your bliss. Don't mind the rest of us as we demand something better.

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Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.

The bottom line is that Sony doesn't need PalmSource, but PalmSource could desperately use Sony.

Since you seem to be genuinely ignorant and/or confused, I'll ignore your troll post.

I have used the P800, P900, P910 and S700. I would replace my T608 phones with S710i, but I'm still not yet willing to cross over to the GSM wasteland for the sake of a better phone.

Yes, most of the thousands of apps available for PalmOS are garbage and there's a lot of redundancy. But there's also a ton of truly brilliant apps that you can't get for Symbian. Palm's failure to update their PDAs with a modern suite of apps is inexcusable, as regulars here know I've said all along.

PIM, email/SMS and Internet is not all you need. Someday you'll see that people accept whatever they're given as long as there aren't better options available. Palm could have kicked Blackberry's a$$ had Palm's execs not been asleep at the wheel.

PalmOS could boost Sony Ericsson's sales in a major way. It's a win-win situation.

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Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.

Anyway back to the original point, I don't think Sony will embrace Palm OS again, and I happen to agree with this business decision. The folks at Microsoft also seem to be much more concerned about Symbian and RIM than anything coming from Palm. PalmSource embracing Linux might change that but only time will tell. Their track record for innovation and execution is not very remarkable...

Have you used a Treo 600 for an extended period of time? If you have, I find it difficult to believe you wouldn't be impressed. The only problem is its horrible build quality. Had Sony made a PalmOS smartphone of similar design last year, they would completely own the smartphone world by now.

Palm's failure to compete with RIM was a major blow to the platform. Palm has been dependent on others for innovation for so long that no one in the company seemed willing to make the effort to create a RIM competitor from scratch. The Good and Seven email packages were apparently expected to make Palm competitve with RIM.

It really has been sad to watch Palm's self destruction unfold over the past three years. It's almost as if someone working there is doing everything possible to destroy the company. The inbreeding with clueless former members of The Apple Dumpling Gang has resulted in Palm being compleyely pillaged and struggling to stay alive. Cutting corners on R + D, parts selection and quality control to make money that's then just handed back to gluttonous executives is a recipe for bankruptcy. The ex-Apple execs were initially like benign pigs in a trough, but now that the Palm Companies are imploding those execs have revealed their true parasitic selves for all to see.

As far as Palm's app advantage: yes it has been significantly eroded over the past few years. But unless you only are a casual user, PalmOS offerings still dominate PPC in most categories. Symbian is a VERY distant third. Unfortunately for Palm, many developers seem to be hedging their bets and now offer PPC versions of their apps. If PPC can win a few more major defections to their camp (like DateBk5) there will be less incentive for veteran Palm users to stick with the platform given how anemic the Palm hardware is these days.

Sony has two options to recoup their recent expense in PalmOS development:

1) Cut a deal with Sony Ericsson to sell a lineup of PalmOS smartphones. Given how good recent Sony Ericsson designs have been (reflected by the company's huge profits in the past few quarters), these phones would be a guaranteed hit. And would threaten Nokia's Symbian hegemony. Sony needs to buy PalmSource outright and get serious about smartphone licencing + creating a PalmOS iPod killer (the VZ90 was a first step towards the latter - a slick portable multimedia center). The hardware and software are more or less already available. It all boils down to whether or not Sony is willing to make a (small) gamble or if conservatism (and reducing market scope) now runs the show. PlayStation Portable is going to be a MASSIVE hit for Sony for the next three years, but PalmOS can also bring in a lot of $$$ into Sony's coffers if it's managed properly. PalmSource is ripe for a buyout, especially given how many damaging blows the company has sustained in the past year. (PalmOS 6 delay, PalmOS 6 bugs, PalmOS 6 rejection, pa1mOne biotch slap, PalmOS 5 bugs, sudden retreat to PalmLinux, etc. etc.) PalmSource may be a demoralized company, but in the right hands they STILL have the potential to turn it around and come out on top again. Quickly. I'm betting whoever buys PalmSource this year will get the bargain of the decade.

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Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.

Initially, they should produce at least 4 models along with one or two carryover models:

1. A ruggedized Zod-sized ToughPad (or whatever) with dual wireless, long-life replacable battery etc.

2. A "T5 but better in every way" style PDA for business users.

3. A "gameable" (not portable gaming console but a media-centric
PDA that just so happens to play games pretty well) Zodiac followup with an eventual upgrade with a micro HD built in. Basically the same thing hinted at by the Tapwave suits in that PCWorld article a few weeks ago but arriving to market sooner than "'06 or later".

4. Either a mid-high range Panasonic Treo OR something along the lines of a HD-based mp3/ogg/DiVx player w/ color scren and SD slot that you could offload digicam pics onto and also use for rudimentary PIM functions (not iPod rudimentary--like Zire 21 rudimentary).

It's a logical move. Matsu****a is bigger than even Sony. They have a vested interest in the SD format. They hate Sony with a passion and aren't too hot on Wintel either. Panasonic's rigid DRM and "secure" SD mp3 players have flopped about a hard as Sony's efforts the past few years. This would be a perfect chance to capitalize on a lull in Apple innovation (Palm-style incremental upgrades on the iPod, as TVoR says above) and weakened Sony CE and VAIO/Clie divisions.

Actually the momentum is with RIM's Blackberry. At its current rate of growth, the Blackberry is going to eclipse both PalmOS and Windows Mobile.

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Editor, http://Pocketfactory.com
Contributing Editor, http://digitalmediathoughts.com

The trend is clear, Palm is screwed.

Momentum is both deceptive and fickle. HP's 2005 PPC hardware lineup is pretty weak and will likely cause a dip in PPC sales over the next few quarters. And remember, PPC momentum has been BOUGHT with Microsoft influence/FUD rather than EARNED like Palm did to generate its sales during its Golden Period of 1999 - 2001. A Sony Ericsson lineup of smartphones and revamped Sony CLIE lineup could quickly reverse this trend. Furthermore, Palms are STILL selling despite countless self-inflicted wounds from the company's so-called leaders.

A Sony PPC makes no sense. Why leave a market you can easily dominate, already have experience in and already have shipping product for, just to join an ultra-competitive market powered by a buggy, bloated Microsoft OS? No way. The problem is that Sony recently experienced heavy losses in several divisions, leading them to want to consolidate their lineups. In addition, some people in Sony felt PSP had the potential to make certain CLIE models (like the VZ90) redundant.

Palm as a hardware company may be (deservedly) screwed, but PalmOS deserves to thrive. A buyout of PalmOS in 2003 (by Sony) was needed to ensure the platform's longterm viability. I still feel PalmOS has what it takes to survive. The only problen is that White Knights are in short supply these days...

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Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.

Blackberry showed everyone once again that business customers are what really matters. Palm made a huge mistake ignoring businesses for as long as it did.

BUT if Blackberry ever loses its patent case, they could disappear almost overnight. It won't happen, but it just goes to show this is all a house of cards waiting to come down.

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Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.

You have no clue as to what HP is set to release.

"and will likely cause a dip in PPC sales over the next few quarters."

Uh - 'Likely'?

"And remember, PPC momentum has been BOUGHT with Microsoft influence/FUD"

Who cares - results are what matter.

>"A Sony Ericsson lineup of smartphones and revamped Sony CLIE lineup could quickly reverse this trend."

Uh - 'Could'?

>"Furthermore, Palms are STILL selling despite countless self-inflicted wounds from the company's so-called leaders."

Check the TREND.

>"A Sony PPC makes no sense."

Sure it does. It makes as much sense as a WINDOWS VAIO Notebook does. You just can't see it yet.

>"PalmOS deserves to thrive."

'Deserves'? Nothing deserves to survive. It's the survival of the fittest out there. Nagel's confused strategy/message of Cobalt and now PalmLinux will be the death knell for Palm.

Good job getting all of the Clie-Cultists all lathered up. BUT you're not 1/100 the pundit you THINK you are. Don't quit your day job at Circus City.

Ha! What a pair: Circus City and Office Despot. Any others?

There's also the infamous "Circuit Sh!tty" of course.

Palm's mistake isn't so much "ignoring business users". Remember that their original offerings were business centric models that also happened to be popular with the masses. That was the magic of Palm; its ability to carry over across business/consumer demographics. Unfortunately, they were late to the consumer game, and now they are tardy in returning to quality business devices. Palm's mistake is merely being slow to the game, which is common with companies that tend to take an overly conservative perspective, which as we can all remember is a trademark of Palm. Problem is, now we need innovation and we need it in a business centric device to thrive. This means incorporating technologies that are becoming common and/or ubiquitous in professional environments. Bluetooth for road warriors who don't want a smartphone but still need connectivity, WiFi for those who are in the office a lot, or in places where there are hotspots allowing them to communicate (email) and get their work done (access to documents, ability to edit/compose them, etc.). And both for those who need both. The flash drive feature on the T5 is a palmOne baby step in that direction. Given their track record, I fear that they will "get it right" just into the next "consumer economy", thereby being late to the game once again.

Smart businesses target stable customers, as that's how you build a solid long term business plan. Pinning your hopes on being the fad item for fickle consumers while failing to create alternate plans is a recipe for disaster, as Palm now knows only too well.

PalmOS could easily be doing everything Blackberry is doing now. Palm was just too slow/arrogant/lazy to make the platform competitive by presenting businesses simple turnkey solutions.

It's amazing to see so many mistakes previously made by Apple being replicated by Palm in recent years. It's obvious that Palm's Apple-derived executives remain oblivious to their near-catastrophic past.

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Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.

Mac likely is running on around 1% of active desktops these days. They've had low marketshare for a LONG time. Still, 1% of a HUGE market is nothing to sneeze at.

Apple execs are quite arrogant and deserve what happened. Once the iPod fad is over in a year or so, Apple is screwed again. Even the dumba$$ Mac Fanatics will eventually tire of asking, "Is there a Mac version of that [software]?"

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Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.

CLIE: Caviar to the general

Palm: Beer to you

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Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.

1. MS port on the PS2. When the PS2 launched back in '00 Sony's digicams were just starting to "get good" (Zeiss lenses etc). If they had just gone with a MS port and an old-style PS1 mem card port on the PS2, legions of rabid gamers would have instantly purchased a Mem Stick with their shiny new PS2 and then automatically considered a Sony digicam a year or two later. Here we are in the age of 300gb+ HDs for under $200 and Sony is still charging, what, $25 for a pitiful 8mb PS2 memory card? That's an insult and a disgrace in every way imaginable. Consumers (ie 20-somethings) have short memories about things like Betamax vs. VHS. They do remember stuff from 4-5 years ago very well, however, and the outright rip-offs (and ATRAC/mp3 check-in) as outlined above aren't easily forgotten. This also conveniently leads me to my next point...

2. Remain consistent with MS specs & formfactor. MS, MS Select, MS Pro, MS Duo, MS Pro Duo, MagicGate, MagicGate Pro. Ad infinitum it seems that Sony is constantly parading a new set of MS formats, each one incompatible in some way with the other. The original MS was promised huge capacaties but it never got past the lame 128mb ceiling (same as SmartMedia). I don't recall ever reading if that was an actual technical limitation or just pure greed. I know of at least four Sony digicam owners. One gave up in disgust waiting for a 512mb or bigger "plain" MS that never materialized. Another just keeps a wallet full of 128mb cards for shooting max-res. shots. The other two just got CF cameras and sold their Sonys after optimistically trying to make a MS Pro work in an older Cybershot.

3. Not enough MS-enabled Sony CE devices. How much would it cost to add a MS port to EVERY Wega TV and EVERY Sony DVD player? In fact, some VAIO notebooks didn't come with a MS slot until recently! Imagine how happy CircuitCity would be to sell you a $900 32" Wega & a $300 Cybershot that would work together and let you view your pics on the big screen instead of a $100 generic Concord camera, a $300 32" Apex TV and a $40 Sandisk TV memory card viewer that essentially does the same thing? I'm STILL trying to figure out the baffling inclusion of the CF slots in the NX/NZ Clies and some of the higher-end Cybershots. How can the Sony engineers ramrod those deviations past management but not get a MS slot on every piece of Sony electronics???

The feuding divisions of Sony cannot agree on anything and now that the beancounters have started to drain Sony CE products of the small touches (glow in the dark remote control buttons, S-Link etc) and beefy build quality that separated them from the competition, they are left with nice screens, their name clout, and little more to ride on. Jumping onto the MP3 bandwagon now won't save them unless they can come up with absolutely KILLER hardware in the very near future. Also, they need to junk their miserable website and start from scratch. Clies are the least of Sony's worries now but they could still have at least gradually & gracefully wound down Clie sales outside of Japan instead of just snuffing it out overnight.

1. MS port on the PS2. When the PS2 launched back in '00 Sony's digicams were just starting to "get good" (Zeiss lenses etc). If they had just gone with a MS port and an old-style PS1 mem card port on the PS2, legions of rabid gamers would have instantly purchased a Mem Stick with their shiny new PS2 and then automatically considered a Sony digicam a year or two later. Here we are in the age of 300gb+ HDs for under $200 and Sony is still charging, what, $25 for a pitiful 8mb PS2 memory card? That's an insult and a disgrace in every way imaginable. Consumers (ie 20-somethings) have short memories about things like Betamax vs. VHS. They do remember stuff from 4-5 years ago very well, however, and the outright rip-offs (and ATRAC/mp3 check-in) as outlined above aren't easily forgotten. This also conveniently leads me to my next point...

Great points. Especially the one about Sony's failure to include a Memory Stick slot on the Playstation 2. That must rank as one of Sony's all time biggest blunders.

2. Remain consistent with MS specs & formfactor. MS, MS Select, MS Pro, MS Duo, MS Pro Duo, MagicGate, MagicGate Pro. Ad infinitum it seems that Sony is constantly parading a new set of MS formats, each one incompatible in some way with the other. The original MS was promised huge capacaties but it never got past the lame 128mb ceiling (same as SmartMedia). I don't recall ever reading if that was an actual technical limitation or just pure greed. I know of at least four Sony digicam owners. One gave up in disgust waiting for a 512mb or bigger "plain" MS that never materialized. Another just keeps a wallet full of 128mb cards for shooting max-res. shots. The other two just got CF cameras and sold their Sonys after optimistically trying to make a MS Pro work in an older Cybershot.

I have to disagree with that one. Yes, ideally they should have come up with a design that didn't need to be changed. The problem is that the earlier Memory Stick formats just aren't capable of doing what is required of a modern memory format. They gradually upgraded the format out of necessity. As usual, early adopters got screwed. Another reason why CompactFlash is overall a "better" format than Memory Stick...

3. Not enough MS-enabled Sony CE devices. How much would it cost to add a MS port to EVERY Wega TV and EVERY Sony DVD player? In fact, some VAIO notebooks didn't come with a MS slot until recently! Imagine how happy CircuitCity would be to sell you a $900 32" Wega & a $300 Cybershot that would work together and let you view your pics on the big screen instead of a $100 generic Concord camera, a $300 32" Apex TV and a $40 Sandisk TV memory card viewer that essentially does the same thing? I'm STILL trying to figure out the baffling inclusion of the CF slots in the NX/NZ Clies and some of the higher-end Cybershots. How can the Sony engineers ramrod those deviations past management but not get a MS slot on every piece of Sony electronics???

True. The more products I see with Memory Stick slots (no matter how useless they really are), the more reassured I am as a consumer that it's a good format and the more likely I am to want to invest in buying more Memory Sticks. Sony almost got me with their slick little DSC-T1 http://www.dcviews.com/reviews/Sony-T1/Sony-DSC-T1-review.htm - not the best in terms of photo quality, but it would have allowed me to use my Memory Sticks in it. In the end, quality (Olympus) beat Sony's strategy.

I think they couldn't get Memory Stick IO to work adequately, so they went with standard CompactFlash on those CLIEs you mentioned.

The feuding divisions of Sony cannot agree on anything and now that the beancounters have started to drain Sony CE products of the small touches (glow in the dark remote control buttons, S-Link etc) and beefy build quality that separated them from the competition, they are left with nice screens, their name clout, and little more to ride on. Jumping onto the MP3 bandwagon now won't save them unless they can come up with absolutely KILLER hardware in the very near future. Also, they need to junk their miserable website and start from scratch. Clies are the least of Sony's worries now but they could still have at least gradually & gracefully wound down Clie sales outside of Japan instead of just snuffing it out overnight.

Agreed. Sony is at risk of killing its good name by dropping quality. People will pay extra for the Sony name and the expected nicer quality, but Samsung is now poised to become the new Sony. Profits from PSP and PS2 should give Sony the breathing room it needs to be able to spend $$$ on the high end boutique "halo" hardware that attracts attention.

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Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.

CLIE and PalmOS were an investment + to be part of a longterm Sony strategy. Sony made a reasonable (at the time) gamble that PDAs would keep booming and that PalmOS would be the center of that boom. Sony would have an entire line of PDAs, entertainment devices, microlaptops, etc that were expected to become as ubiquitous as the Sony Walkman was in the 80s. That stategy seemed quite sound in 2000. What Sony spent on PDA development from 2000 - 2004 was little more than R + D for its future. Sony experimented and released an incredible number of models every month or two. Anything made back from sales of what was essentially prototype hardware was a bonus. Had the PDA market continued to grow the way it did from 1999 - 2001, Sony would be in a enviable postion right now.

But like any wise company, Sony had several backup plans and PSP will probably save their collective a$$es. Palm, on the other hand, had no backup plan and is now in the midst of a record-setting decline.

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Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.

Palms are already OQO sized, and various companies (Sonly included) have shown that you can pair just about any hardware you want with the OS if you are willing to do so. Realistically there is nothing to stop the PalmOS from being the OS of choice for minitature devices (OQO included), except for the developers and companies themselves.

Sonly shoots both themselves and the platform in the foot everytime they try to lock you into something proprietary (i.e. Memory Stick instead of SD, crippled CF slots, etc.). The same goes for PalmOne everytime they fail to meet their potential, and PalmSource for not having a better and faster reveiew process for adding features into the OS that licensees would implement and recommend to Palm. I DO have to give kudos to those responsible for the PalmOS for keeping it a somewhat open and very customizable OS, allowing licensees to innovate at will. Sonly just carried that a little too far, IMHO, by creating some bizzare, hard to use designs. If they had skipped some of those and arrived at something like the TH-55 earlier and with more open standards (SD vs. MS), they might still be marketing Clies outside of Japan today. Many consumers don't want to feel coerced into using a format they have no other use for, especially if they already have other cards that work in everything else they have.

_________________
Sean

Always remember that you are unique. Just like everyone else.

Further, when they shrink it down to an OQO-sized device and tweak things for wake-up-with-alarm capability, the PDA will be dead in corporations.

Your latest obsession - Sony's U series - is little more than a public beta, much like most of the CLIEs were. But as long as Sony doesn't abandon it, within two or three generations (2 years) the U models should have all of the bugs + UI issues worked out. Still, for many potential customers it will be no keyboard, no go. A 2 pound XP mini laptop makes more sense (for now) than the Vaio U71/U50 + keyboard.

The only one dreaming is you, Cane. The proposed CLIE models are achievable TODAY, no development necessary. The Vaio U71/U50 have a long way to go.

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Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.

Yeah, as if you ever held one in your greasy, sleazy paws. That comment alone shows just how ignorant you are of that platform. Especially since in the *US* it's the 750P. Update your files.

Yes, generating profits should be a good goal of any company, but not at the expense of customer loyalty/consumer relations. Sonly has squandered a lot of consumer goodwill that would have made them even more profitable had they chosen to go with a more open (or less propriatary, or more widely used, take your pick of terms) format rather than trying to force/foist/shoehorn a memory format that was both technologically inferior (this gap has narrowed coniderably, but I think too late), and had little to no market penetration. This made your expensive (MORE expensive than higher capacity, technologically superior formats) investment usable in one device, two if you are a Sonly die-hard and bought their cameras too. Couple that with the obscenely slow speeds and what you got was somthing that was not very useful with a high price of admission.

If Sonly has succeeded in getting consumers to buy and use their MS sporting technology, it is in spite of themselves, not because of the merits of MS. MS has very little to do with the technology of the devices using it. It could easily be switched out/replaced with SD, which is much more prevalent in the market, and sell an even greater number of devices. I don't have a Sonly digicam, because A) I have no use for MS, and B) I already have a ready supply of SD cards. So my next camera will likely be a Nikon, as it is every bit as high quality, and I won't need to purchase yet another memory card. Sonly wasn't even in the running, because I would have to buy a MS whos sole purpose would be that camera. I don't think so. With the SD using cameras, I can snap a picture out in the field or on the road, then immediately put the card into my T5 and view the picture on a larger screen than the camera can provide. It also has the side benefit of an instant photo album in my Palm, as I can keep the pics I like on it. Additionally, I can offload the pics to the T5's internal memory, then transfer it to my 1GB SD card the normally resides in the SD slot, thereby clearing my (likely smaller capacity) SD card in the camera. Or, if I choose I can just use the one 1GB card for both. That's the kind of flexibility I and many other consumers appreciate, and will be more likely to buy.

_________________
Sean

Always remember that you are unique. Just like everyone else.

Ahem, with IR, it would be tri-wireless (if you don't mind).

Always remember that you are unique. Just like everyone else.

This, my friends, is exactly why they bailed on the Clie line. Sony basically took, as Voice said, all of the sum of their Clie experiences as far as formfactor, size, battery life etc. and built a closed system gaming console around it. The "media" functions are a bonus. Same as the PS2. Killer game system (for its time) first, nifty multimedia capabilities as secondary functions. Think of how many residences around the world got their first taste of DVD movie playback on a PS2 in '00 or '01? I'd wager there are still a fair number using a PS2 as their primary movie machine.

The PSP will have a strong gaming library first and foremost while still doing the 2 basic tasks that your average Joe cares about--show digital camera pics to grandma and play plain ol' MP3s. Everything else (web browsing etc) is of minute importance.

Sony is looking like they are increasingly likely to hit one out of the park with the PSP. As long as they quickly address any hardware quirks and make sure there are decent aftermarket parts for it (higher capacity replacement batteries, replacement plastic screen shields etc) then they'll have achieved WHAT they wanted the Clie to achieve (get a PSP/Clie in as many pockets as possible and sell a few MemSticks in the process) while being infinitely more profitable for Sony as a company.

Imagine the possibilities for homebrew apps for this thing--universal remote control type programs, web browswers, IM clients, wi-fi diagnostic boxes etc etc. The possibilities are endless!

http://www.the-gadgeteer.com/sony-psp-review.html

-- that finally snagged my interest. I want one too! Even just for web browsing with -- questionable link selection by buttons -- it's worth the price!

So has much of previous Japan manufacturing.

Hell, the electrons I'm using here were made in Cihna.

Hmmmm... they sitll gotta wrok on their uqaltyi cnortlo.

"Apple® announced today that its Board of Directors has approved a two-for-one split of the Company’s common stock and a proportional increase in the number of Apple common shares authorized from 900 million to 1.8 billion. Each shareholder of record at the close of business on February 18, 2005 will receive one additional share for every outstanding share held on the record date, and trading will begin on a split-adjusted basis on February 28, 2005.

Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning desktop and notebook computers, OS X operating system, and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital music revolution with its iPod portable music players and iTunes online music store.
"

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Press release: CUPERTINO, California — February 11, 2005 — Apple® announced today that Steve Jobs will begin selling his own feces to Apple Cultists beginning March 1. Apple's new iPoo™ lineup is expected to easily surpass the iPod Shuffle as the company's most popular product. Yes, Apple Cultists can already easily create their own iPoo™, but feces didn't seem cool until Jobs told them it was cool. Remember, kids: the ONLY cool feces is Jobs' highly individualistic, rebellious iPoo™ (coming soon in six different colors/flavors, including the red [hematochezia] and black [melena] U2 GI bleed model)

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Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.

Wrong (again). The CLIEs were a mixed bag. There were practical models like the S320, S360, TJ series, etc. And there were boutique models like the UX50, most N series, etc. CLIEs suffered mainly from "optimistic" pricing, weak advertising and nonexistent support. A properly run Internet sales store could do well even today with little effort from Sony - just ask anyone who's paid over $300 recently for an EB40 battery...





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Press release: CUPERTINO, California — February 11, 2005 — Apple® announced today that Steve Jobs will begin selling his own feces to Apple Cultists beginning March 1. Apple's new iPoo™ lineup is expected to easily surpass the iPod shuffle as the company's most popular product. Yes, Apple Cultists can already easily create their own iPoo™, but feces didn't seem cool until Jobs told them it was cool. Remember, kids: the ONLY cool feces is Jobs' highly individualistic, rebellious iPoo™ (coming soon in six different colors/flavors, including the red [hematochezia] and black [melena] U2 GI bleed model)

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Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.

Press release: CUPERTINO, California — February 11, 2005 — Apple® announced today that Steve Jobs will begin selling his own feces to Apple Cultists beginning March 1. Apple's new iPoo™ lineup is expected to easily surpass the iPod shuffle as the company's most popular product. Yes, Apple Cultists can already easily create their own iPoo™, but feces didn't seem cool until Jobs told them it was cool. Remember, kids: the ONLY cool feces is Jobs' highly individualistic, rebellious iPoo™ (coming soon in six different colors/flavors, including the red [hematochezia] and black [melena] U2 GI bleed model)

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Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.