Zire Wins IDEA2003 Gold Award

Palm's Zire handheld has won a Gold award in the 2003 Industrial Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) competition, co-sponsored by the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) and BusinessWeek magazine.

"The Palm Zire impressed with its attention to detail and its elegant simplicity, particularly for an entry-level product," said Juror Jim Couch, IDSA, principal, Substance Design Group, Ltd. "The Zire's appearance conveys a quiet, calm, Zen-like aesthetic that is normally reserved for products selling at twice its cost. Simplifying the user interface, reducing its thickness, size and weight, and incorporating a power source that can go as long as a month on a single charge all contributes to making the Palm Zire highly desirable."

Named as a best product of 2002 by BusinessWeek and PC Magazine, the Palm Zire handheld has been the fastest-selling handheld in Palm's history, selling more than 1 million units since its introduction last October. It's the most affordable and lightest-weight Palm branded handheld to date.

"We wanted to design a handheld that addressed the needs of first-time handheld users, focusing on value and simplicity. The result was a unique marriage of design and functionality at a price that makes handheld technology accessible to a whole new audience," said Rich Gioscia, director of design for Palm Solutions Group. "The Zire handheld is a breakthrough product, and we're pleased it's been recognized with such a prestigious award."

An in-depth analysis of the IDEA winners are featured in BusinessWeek's July 7 issue, hitting newsstands today.

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Oh well...

Gazpacho @ 6/27/2003 1:14:34 PM #
Unfortunately, that's all that the Palm Zire is. A good Industrial Design product, hyped up by the marketing department of Palm who didn't fail this time. Unfortunately the hardware is totally outdated and too expensive for its performance.

But all in all, the Sony Clie SJ20 is the better buy for an entry level monochrome Palm nowadays.

RE: Oh well...
rsc1000 @ 6/27/2003 2:03:41 PM #
Yeah - the sj20 is nicer (i love the greyscale screen on this with the true white background (funny that sony promised that earlier and didnt deliver - but now lives up to the title). The sj20 gives a lot more for the $$$. But - the zire is much more 'approachable' to newbies. Its so simple and simple looking - clean, uncluttered, and only 4 buttons. And although you lose a lot by saving only $20 or so (difference in price between zire & sj20) - it is cheaper and is - in fact - the cheapest device to use an industry standard os. But back to the article - the Zire does blow away the ugly sony in this 1 area - design.

RE: Oh well...
abosco @ 6/27/2003 2:09:31 PM #
Well, the million people who bought one these past eight months didn't think it was overpriced.

Palm's mindset: this is all entry level users will need. Anything more will increase production cost, and anything less won't make it a Palm.

-Bosco

RE: Oh well...
Gazpacho @ 6/27/2003 5:46:42 PM #
[quote]Well, the million people who bought one these past eight months didn't think it was overpriced.[/quote]

They didn't when they bought it. The users who take their Zire and PDA use seriously, do now.



RE: Oh well...
abosco @ 6/27/2003 7:41:59 PM #
And what do you mean by that? Most users are satisfied with a datebook and address book that syncs with their computer. If someone wanted to run a VPN client over their Wifi network, I'm sure they would have looked at something a little more expensive than the Zire.

I highly doubt you'll find someone who upgraded from a Zire to a better PDA that will tell you the original Zire was a ripoff.

-Bosco

Amazing

Timothy Rapson @ 6/27/2003 1:16:40 PM #
Unbelievable!

RE: Amazing
drillmaggot @ 6/27/2003 1:21:37 PM #
Not defending this accolade for the Zire, but who is talking monochrome screens. Clie PEG-SJ20 is monochrome while the Zire is color.

The more Palm devices in peoples pockets, the better for Palm & PalmOS devices.

-drillmaggot

RE: Amazing
drillmaggot @ 6/27/2003 1:26:17 PM #
You're right, I am a dope. What was I thinking!
I withdraw my statement.
-drillmaggot

RE: Amazing
helf @ 6/27/2003 3:09:51 PM #
The zire is not color. Its a monochrome machine too.

RE: Amazing
JimBezdan @ 6/28/2003 7:56:10 PM #
The Zire is not monochrome or color. It is grayscale. Big difference. Monochrome are basically like the color screens that are out today, which are trans-reflective. Grayscales are just plain old LCDs that have the ability to show various shades of gray, hence the name grayscale.
RE: Amazing
cyruski @ 6/29/2003 5:36:43 PM #
!!!!!!!!!!!

Its crap but it does the job

dawzilla @ 6/27/2003 1:26:21 PM #
We can all be quick to call the zire m150 (the monochrome one) crap. But it does what it needs to do, calendaring and contact information. Thats what majority of non-power users use it for.

Most people use the built in programs, and they're generally fine with that.

The zirem150 is pocketable, durable (plastic shell and plastic digitizer, also ugly blue flap). It has a rechagable battery. Sadly no backlight. But I've noticed that most I've seen use devices (included myself), do not use backlight that often.

It only has 4 navigational butons, but thats good enough for most folks.

RE: Its crap but it does the job
hoodoo @ 6/27/2003 2:02:07 PM #
I agree. I definitely would have got a Zire mono if it was to be my first POS PDA. It's the way to lure people in and get them started on Palm without much monetary risk.

I was hesitant to buy my first Palm until the prices dropped a bit (an m100). My biggest wish was for rechargeables when I had it. Of course I also started to use up the memory and then got an m105. Then I decided I wanted colour and I bought a Prism (used though, so that didn't help out Handspring or Palm much). Used so I could try it and see before springing for $400. All this in one year!

Now I follow the latest POS developments on PIC and I am now salivating over a Zire71. So there, Palm's strategy worked on me. :-)


RE: Its crap but it does the job
hkklife @ 6/27/2003 3:21:59 PM #
I'd like to see the current m150 Zire drop down to say.....$70-$75, and see a new $100 Zire with (basically) the m125's hardware specs (8mb etc) take its place. Unlikely to happen, though.

In actuality, an even cheaper Zire would probably steal sales from an upgraded model (it does just enough for most people), so I'd just count on seeing the existing m150 fade into oblivion...add to it that Palm is trying to make people forget Graffiti 1 ever existed and you've got the makings for the original Zire to be put out to pasture ASAP. Don't be surprised if a new mono Zire wouldn't be out in time for the back to school rush, leaving the T|T2 waaay delayed until Oct/Nov timeframe.

I actually think it's also likely that we'll see the next "cheap" Zire ship with a SD slot and keep a limited amount of ram (2 to 4mb). Why? Because Palm's really gearing up their content offerngs on SD card---games, dictionaries, e-book compilations etc. It makes for a nice revenue source and aside from the occasional Handmark release, Palm's got the market entirely to themselves. They've made too many bungles to mention over the past few years but I do think that their push to extend MMC for content delivery and SD as a storage medium (with integrated apps/utils) has actually been a very positive move, even if it hasn't met with any attention from the press at all.

Need new color Zire!

gfunkmagic @ 6/27/2003 3:11:23 PM #
Where's the color update to the basic Zire? IMO, this is the holy grail for the sub<$200 market. I think it would be awesome if PSG came out with a revamped Zire linup like this:

- Zire: <=$50

- Thin Color(transmissive screen) 8 MB? Zire w/OS 4.1 <=$100

- Thin Color Zire, 16MB w/SDIO, OS 4.1 <=$150. This would be low end replacement for M series

- Thin Color Zire (transflecitve screen) w/SDIO, OS 5.2, 16-32 MB ~$200

- Zire 71 series w/multimedia focus ~$250-$300

----------------------------------------
"Computers are useless. They can only give you answers."

-Pablo Picasso.

RE: Need new color Zire!
hkklife @ 6/27/2003 3:27:58 PM #
Well, that's not a bad roadmap except that it's still gonna be a while until we have a <$100 color unit. Also, Palm would release all of those models with OS 4.2x instead of 4.1, in order to pack in Graffiti 2 and whatever other miscelleneous bug fixes have popped up over the past year. You can definitely count on the fact that the T|T being the last new Palm-branded device to ship with Graffiti 1 standard.

The thought that counts
Quik_Fix @ 6/27/2003 3:30:50 PM #
That's a wonderful map and all, but aren't your prices a little low for color devices? Lemme know when color, 16mb, SDIO devices fall below $200.

Oh my God. They found me. I dunno how but they found me...
RUN FOR IT MARTY!

Quik_Fix
quikfix@hotmail.com

RE: Need new color Zire!
gfunkmagic @ 6/27/2003 3:47:38 PM #
Quote: "That's a wonderful map and all, but aren't your prices a little low for color devices? Lemme know when color, 16mb, SDIO devices fall below $200"

Well you can find prices online for the SJ22 <$200 w/shipping! That includes a high rez screen, MS!! Whay can't PSG come out with a midrange color model at or below the $200 price point?

Also, I agree a sub $100 color Zire is a long shot, but thats why I described it as the 'holy grail'. I think such a device would be an even greater success that the original Zire...

----------------------------------------
"Computers are useless. They can only give you answers."

-Pablo Picasso.

RE: Need new color Zire!
abosco @ 6/27/2003 4:22:05 PM #
>Lemme know when color, 16mb, SDIO devices fall below $200

Where have you been? The Dell Axim Basic is $199 with 240x320 16 bit color, SD, CF, 32 MB RAM, and 300 MHz! How much do you guys think color screens cost? Maybe $20 more in production? Sony has ONE greyscale device left. My bet is they're going to replace it with a color SJ22 at $100 in a few months. That's sure to be a great seller.

Color makes something look a whole lot cooler. Just stuff 160x160 color in the Zire, and you've got another hit.

-Bosco

RE: Need new color Zire!
hotpaw4 @ 6/27/2003 7:32:04 PM #
There already is a new color Zire, the Z71. It's priced to make a profit while still investing in R&D. Dell doesn't invest any significant % in R&D; and M$ doesn't look like it's even trying to make a profit in the PDA market.
RE: Need new color Zire!
sonylover @ 6/27/2003 7:32:40 PM #
There's not much profit right now having palms that cheap-Palm is very business minded while sony is more for innovation (exc. Palm's Zire 71) remember?

Sony's product cycle is in dog years!

The Peanut Shell Gallery -- that's what most of you are!

RhinoSteve @ 6/27/2003 6:28:00 PM #
The negative responses that I'm seeing here has me ready to write off the relevance of most who post here. Palm SG gets a major industry award and most here complain how the product is no good. This is so wrong on so many levels.

I can just imagine the PalmInfoCenter Comment award. The winning product would do everything and cost nothing with us product developers going broke. But then, you wouldn't even have the money to have an award fabricated to give.

Go back to your video games and porn sites. I have a date tonight. I doubt you guys do.
RE: The Peanut Shell Gallery -- that's what most of you are!
sonylover @ 6/27/2003 7:34:25 PM #
POor you, talking while nobody is listening-this board is meant to reflect OPINIONS , and companies do product research here if they deZIRE to so boo-hoo!

Sony's product cycle is in dog years!
RE: The Peanut Shell Gallery -- that's what most of you are!
Tuckermaclain @ 6/28/2003 9:29:34 AM #
The Zire does a fine job at what it was designed for. It's not too different from the Palm V. I'm on my sixth Palm now and qualify as a "poweruser." Most people I know that get their first Palm have never heard of PalmGear, Handango, Bluetooth, etc. A zire would work just fine for them, but instead, most bought OS5 Palms and are just learning how to set alarms in the datebook. This was designed as entry-level. A newbie can ease his/her way into the Palm family, then move up to whatever makes them happy. Harley-Davidson did the same thing when they introduced the inexpensive 883 Sportsters. They brought many more people into the fold and are much more profitable because of it. Think about it--most new bikers are intimidated by a Fat Boy or V-Rod, and actually like having something smaller. Other people must think the same because the Zire sells so well. Not everybody knows Palms as well as the people who read PIC.

RE: The Peanut Shell Gallery -- that's what most of you are!
Lungboy @ 6/28/2003 11:20:35 AM #
I agree, the Zire was created to get the low end market and it did just that. Just because most PIC aren't in the Zire target market doesn't make it any less of a good idea.

I remember "IBM clones" flooding the market years ago and many nay-sayers saying how under powered and useless they were. But they sold and today are the defacto standard. While I think Palm is going to have a problem with fighting Microsoft in years to come, it is still an excellent marketing move.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Eagles may soar but at least weasles don't get sucked into jet engines.

Tools for use...
orb2069 @ 6/30/2003 10:24:29 AM #
I actually suggested a Zire to somebody, and a M105 to someone else, when they were out.

They're very rugged, require minimal attention/handholding, and -as they say- get you back to the basics.

On top of which, you know that some people really don't 'get' the PDA thing, right? I can't count the number of people I've heard comment 'I've got one of those things in the drawer back home', then explain why they never use it because of data loss (Forgetting to recharge it, accidental dropping, etc) too-awkward/cumbersome interface(WinCE, mainly) or unstable (Bought the top of the line and loaded it with crap software...)

First we walk, then we run, then we go out and get a bicycle - You don't skip straight to the bicycle based on specs.

RE: The Peanut Shell Gallery -- that's what most of you are!
Storkdude @ 7/2/2003 6:06:42 AM #
Now that there's a million more Palm's in circulation maybe those gorillas in Northern Georgia will eat better.

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