According to NPD INTELECT Market Tracking, sales of personal digital assistants (PDAs) through retail, mail order and corporate reseller channels finished 1999 with total unit sales of 1.3 million in the U.S. The same number of units were sold during the first half of 2000 alone suggesting that PDA sales will more than likely double by the end of year.

Palm series continues to be the leader in market share, with 65% market share in June 2000. It is followed by Handspring (non-existent in June 1999) at 21%, which has taken a bite out of the business of Palm and Casio, and knocked Everex and Phillips out of the top five.

The average price of a PDA slipped from $350 in June 1999 to $324 this June.

In a recent CNET interview, Palm and Handspring co-founder Donna Dubinsky makes some interesting comments about Microsoft and makers of Pocket PC handhelds:

We're better at synchronizing with Windows than they are. [The handheld industry] has to acknowledge that Windows is the leadership and the clear standard on the desktop. But they keep persisting and believing they have to put Windows in this. And so they keep trying to fit it. They keep reducing and reducing the number of calls and APIs, of course making it less and less robust in order to be able to fit it in. And then by doing so, they're losing the key thing they gain by it being Windows, which is compatibility. So now it's not compatible, but it's still Windows, which is too big and a processor hog.

Palm and Broadbeam Corporation have announced an agreement through which Broadbeam will deliver wireless development tools for the Palm VII. The idea is to allow companies to quickly and easily extend their enterprise applications to the wireless world.

Dennis Burns, Director, Wireless Enterprise Solutions at Palm said, "Palm has a wireless solution focus on the enterprise and, along with its partners, will offer compelling vertical applications across many market segments including CRM, healthcare, fleet management/logistics, education, field service, and automotive."

Paragon Software has completed development and issued a full Russian localization for the TRGpro. Recently, Management Services Group Ltd and TRG Products reached an agreement to begin official deliveries of the TRGpro to Russia which raised the need for Russian localization. All involved believe that the fully Russian-localized TRGpro will quickly increase the numbers of Palm OS devices in use in the Russian market.

As had been rumored, Intel today introduced a new chip microarchitecture designed for handheld devices. Building on Intel's StrongARM technology, the XScale microarchitecture core is manufactured on Intel's advanced 0.18-micron process technology. It offers low power operation ranging from one ten-thousandth of a watt to 1.6 watts, and performance that allows it to operate at clock speeds approaching 1 GHz.

While not a lot is known at this point, in April Palm CEO Carl Yankowski said that, in the "near future", at least some of Palm's handhelds will be powered by processors based on the ARM chips. It isn't unreasonable to assume that Palm will be looking at XScale chips very closely in the near future.

Gambit Studios, the creators of Liberty, the GameBoy emulator, have released version 1.1, which has some major changes. These include faster emulation speed, better compatibility so more games work, smaller ROMs, ROM beaming, and you can even save the state of a game and pick up where you left off later.

InfoWorld is quoting "a source familiar with Intel's plans" giving some advance details on the announcements that will be made tomorrow about Intel's two new StrongARM chips.

Coyanosa is the next generation of the SA 110 and will boast a clock speed of 600MHz. Cotulla is patterned on Intel's SA 1110 and is expected to debut at 400MHz.

Track Your Company's Palms
Critical Devices Inc. has announced a new enterprise solution that gives companies a simplified and secure approach to remotely identify, track and monitor Palm handhelds. This service, available on a monthly subscription basis, provides a browser-based interface that keeps IT departments informed about the status, health and whereabouts of every handheld computer.

Pilot Install
Pilot Install is a handy freeware Windows app allows you to just install a new Palm app without a full HotSync. Very handy if you realized right after you did a HotSync that wanted to install something. Thanks to Smaller.com for pointing it out.

The Infrared Data Association (IrDA) has successfully used an infrared messaging system to complete a check authorization transaction using a Palm. This is an important first step in some day allowing people to pay for purchases via the infrared port on their Palm and other IR capable devices. "Digital payments are the future of financial transactions. The hassles of paper checks and plastic cards will be replaced with a one step process - the customer simply beams the instructions from their personal information appliance," stated H. R. Damon Gonzalez, Jr., Marketing Co-Chair of IrDA.

Welcome to the completely redone and overhauled Palm Infocenter. The entire code base was rewritten for speed, efficiency and lighter pages. There are a bunch of new features and improvements were made to the original features. First off you will now need to register to post comments with a username. Registration is quick, easy and free. You will not need to login each visit, as your session is stored in cookies. Once registered you can post comments in our new forums, with news stories and polls, add your signature, customize the site's colors and more. Also the first 2,000 people to register will be added to a future contest drawing to be announced soon.

Let us know what you think in the current poll and you can always make suggestions via our feedback form or in the forums. If you spot any bugs, please let us know as there may be a glitch here or there. Enjoy, more new things are on the way!

At its developer forum on Wednesday this week, Ron Smith, general manager of Intel's wireless computing group, will reveal a new line of StrongArm chips that will come out at the end of this year. However, Intel is dropping the name "StrongArm" in favor of a new name that Mr. Smith will reveal on Wednesday.

Palm has already said it is planning on moving to processors based on the ARM architecture. Back in April, Palm CEO Carl Yankowski said that, in the "near future", at least some of Palms handhelds will be powered by processors from ARM, which are significantly more powerful than the Motorola chips Palms currently boast. Prototypes running 200 MHz StrongArm chips have been seen.