Color Palms still easy to find

Posted By: Ryan Friday, May 26, 2000 9:40:21 AM

Despite the global shortage of flash memory and LCD's, the Palm IIIc is not in short supply according to this c|net article. The IIIc is nearly the lowest-selling Palm-branded device, second only to the Palm VII, which is considered a niche product. In May, the device ranked after the Palm IIIxe, the Palm Vx, the Palm IIIe and the Palm V, in that order, according to market research firm PC Data.

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color palm

Denise @ 5/26/2000 11:08:45 AM #

Well, at 449.00 price it's not going to get a lot of takers. I love mine, but it has had it glitches. I had a crash yesterday and after reloading it loaded all the data the 70 odd apps, but had no hot sync id. 3 hours on the phone to palm with customer serives reps who in one case didn't have a grip on a clue. I wouldn't tell a first time user to buy a color one. I think the new model glitches would turn off a novice user. I don't like palms tendency to blame everything on third party software either. Althoug I'm not a devloper I think it's insulting. Granted some problems occur with other software, but the standar d customer service response is to blame it on the software.

RE: color palm

George @ 5/26/2000 3:18:44 PM #

I agree. $449 is WAY too much for what you get. I got mine discounted, but even at $400, it's still too much. Don't get me wrong, I love it and have had no problems, but it's not worth the money. I'm of the opinion that NONE of the PalmOS machines are worth more than $200. Come to think of it, NO handheld is worth more than that. So why did I buy it? Just because I wanted it... :)

Wait until the next version comes out, then buy these when they get clearanced.

RE: color palm

Neil @ 5/27/2000 10:36:05 AM #

I disagree to some extent with others. I am a first-time Palm user and have a IIIc. I originally purchased a IIIxe from my local Franklin Covey. But the next week I saw the IIIc and they gave me a full exchange toward it and I am very happy I did that. I have had zero problems with the IIIc; no crashes, my buttons work OK, no cracks in the case.

Is it worth the $449? Judged against what else is available, I think so. Sure, later models will be a lot less money. But that is true throughout the consumer electronics field. The wealth of software for it makes it, IMHO, more valuable then the Pocket PC units priced similarly. The visibility of the screen even in B&W mode makes it worth relatively much more than a IIIxe. The color if you have applications you like that use color is a phenomenal value-added perq.

Sure it is less popular. A Corvette is less popular than a Neon. But I want to drive the Vette.

RE: color palm

Denise @ 5/27/2000 1:43:19 PM #

I'm glad you're happy and content with your IIIc as I said, ny worry is that for the moeny if you're a new user and run into too many problems then it cast a pall over the palm reputation. (I should own stock or at least be on commission for palm at this point). I like your comment about neons versus vettes and agree with that. To be honest, we IIIc owners are like new car buyers, in that in many cases the first product run has some bugs. I use to drive a neon and had brakes replaced three times the first model year. While it was an inconvience, the fact that the company took responsibility and admitted to the flaw helped a lot. In this case, I think palm was too slow in admiting tat their was a problem.

Colours and Palm

jimbo @ 5/27/2000 1:13:48 PM #

I own an old Palm III and suffer from memory shortage and poor screen, however I refuse to buy a new device until I can get something that essentially boils down to a Palm Vx with colours. I don't care about price, I want a Vx with colours. That is why the IIIc were a disappointment to me.

RE: Colours and Palm

Paul @ 5/27/2000 2:38:44 PM #

According to a Palm rep that visited LAPUG a few months ago. Getting color into the Palm IIIc was a huge challenge. She said not to expect a Palm V-Vx version anytime soon.
I’ve opened my Palm IIIc to look inside and I can see why. Although the main board is considerably smaller than the Palm III board. This appears to be to make room for the large Lithium Ion battery. Palm demands a usable amount of run time from their batteries, unlike the color WinCe units.
I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but it appears that the wait for a color Palm Vx will be a long one at best.

On a side note. I’ve been a Palm user since I got my Palm 5000 several years ago. Now, 4 Palm units later, I don’t feel that the Palm IIIc is any less stable than the older ones. You just have to make sure the software you load onto it is current and compatible with the IIIc. This is true with any upgrade of hardware.

RE: Colours and Palm

PDA Boy @ 5/27/2000 11:03:38 PM #

QUOTE FROM PAUL: "Palm demands a usable amount of run time from their batteries, unlike the color WinCe units."

What is that supposed to mean? The Palm IIIc has roughly the same battery life as a Pocket PC! I recently purchased a Jornada 545 (after going through three bad Palm IIIc units) and its battery life is 8 hours, while the IIIc has a lifespan of 9 hours, and the Compaq iPaq gets around 12 hours! That's not much differnce in battery life to warrent accepting the *flaws* of the IIIc!

You need to study battery usage of the IIIc a little better. Palm quotes it as having a two week lifespan, but that is basing it on only 30 minutes of useage a day! With continuous use the IIIc will last only 9 hours. Which means that the Compaq Pocket PC will actually last another three hours beyond the Palm!

RE: Colours and Palm

jimbo @ 5/28/2000 3:17:22 AM #

hmm, maybe the Dragonball is a bit "thirsty",
anybody knows how much power it consumes when not
in power saving mode? Compared to ARM? MIPS? etc.

Ofcourse the LCD might be more thirsty as well,
since it's a colour display, but the WinCE devices
seems to have 16bit displays and at least some of
them lasts somewhat comparetively to the Palm IIIc.

RE: Colours and Palm

George @ 5/28/2000 1:50:47 PM #

NINE HOURS!? BS! I have a IIIc. It can live almost twice as long...about 16 hours. What in the world were you doing FOR NINE HOURS that would drain the battery that much? Realistically, unless you waste your time all day playing noisy games, Palm's estimate is pretty close. The 'average' user (we are not average, are we?) will use the Palm for one half hour to an hour max daily. How many busy people are going to be playing 'Dreadling' or SimCity for hours on end? I suspect the Palm VII user may be 'surfing' for longer times than the average III or V user would be using the device. Get real. Three IIIc's? Were you playing hockey and using them as pucks? Sorry for the sarcasm...but I seem to recall a similar backlash a few years ago when the III was released. I don't get it...better hardware (yes, the IIIc IS better,) more memory, rechargable battery, faster hotsynch, COLOR, nicer case...what's not to like?

I hope you enjoy that little device from HP. By the time Microsoft has handheld computing figured out, the DOJ will be breaking up Palm for it's alleged monopoly.

RE: Colours and Palm, for George!

PDA Boy @ 5/28/2000 8:32:42 PM #

16 hours? fraid not! Your right though, no one could possibly use a PDA for 9 hours straight, but that wasn't my point. All I was doing was drawing a direct comparison to batter life between the IIIc and a Pocket PC in response to Paul. HP quotes the battery life of the Jornada as 8 hours of non-stop usage. Using that same pattern, the Palm IIIc falls to 9 hours. That isn't my opinion, that is fact, and its been documented by several independant sources including ZDNET. And I don't know how you can agree with Palm's estimate that the average use of a Palm will be 30 minutes! For christ sake, I use my Cell phone longer than that! This figure might apply to a cordless razor, but not a PDA.

Using my IIIc as hockey pucks? Nope, the problem I experienced had nothing to do with durability. My IIIc's wouldn't funtion properly. You can see a more detailed posting of my problems by looking at the story about Palm replacing IIIc cases here at PinfoCenter, and I wasn't the only one! Basically the digitizer wouldn't work. When you tap on an item, it would select something else!

Better hardware? Hmm, I don't see how you can say that considering Palm is having a problem with the cheap plastic case, from which the IIIc is made, developing cracks. Faster Hotsync? This shows how little you know about Palm devices, the faster Hotsync has nothing to do with the IIIc. The reason for the faster sync is due to an upgraded version of the Palm Hotsync manager, which any current Palm user can freely download.

And yes, I love my Pocket PC! Will Palm continue to kick Microsoft's ass? Probably, but that doesn't mean we as consumers should stupidly buy whatever Palm shits out! Look, I've owned nearly every Palm device ever made (except the early Pilots) and I have loved every one of them. The IIIc has been the first line of Palm handhelds that gave me problems, but the simple truth is that the Palm IIIc is an inferior product in comparison to a Pocket PC. I'm not just basing that on features, I'm talking about display quality. The IIIc display is so badly pixelated it's blinding! Palm should have increased the screen resolution before introducing color...but no, they simply added a color display to the same 160x160 low res interface, and it doesn't work!

I can promise you this George, if people like you blindly accept whatever Palm delivers, you will never see any new innovated features from Palm. Competition is what drives markets! Look at AMD and Intel. We now have PCs that border on Workstation performance. Microsoft has little competition on the desktop OS market. The result: a stagnant interface that never changes! Pocket PC is the best thing to happen to the Palm platform. Palm will never continue its success by stagnating its platform! It's time we give them an enima!