m300 Rumors Might Be False

Posted By: Ed Tuesday, February 27, 2001 9:46:50 PM

According to a Cnet article, recent rumors of an m300 model to replace the IIIxe aren't true. Instead, Palm is going to release the m105 at $200 with 8MB of memory and a cradle, alongside the $150 m100 with 2MB and no cradle. The m105 won't have flash ROM, meaning that its OS can't be upgraded.

Just citing "sources", the article says that the m105 will be launched any day now. A Palm representative declined to say anything about the new model but did confirm that the IIIxe has been discontinued.

Until now, the consensus of rumors was that the m105 would replace the m100 at $150, with the m100 being phased out or possibly dropping to an even lower price. The m300 was believed to be a totally redesigned, larger model, though not as large as the III series, that would have 8MB of memory, an upgradable OS, and sell for about $250. If the Cnet article is correct, these rumors have been totally incorrect.

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Way Bad Plan

I.M. Anonymous @ 2/27/2001 10:27:38 PM #

This stinks! The m105 is no replacement for the IIIxe! The only way to upgrade the OS is to buy a new Palm. Whose idea was that? The Sales department, I'd guess.

The m105 is going to cost $200 and the m500 is going to cost at least $400, that's a hell of a price gap. We can buy a Yugo or a Lexus but not anything in between?

Bad move, Palm. Bad move.

RE: Way Bad Plan

I.M. Anonymous @ 2/28/2001 8:02:22 AM #

My guess is that Palm is really moving forward on the move to ARM next year. That would mean that the devices released this year will likely not be upgradeable anyway in the future because no upgrade will ever be made that runs on this chip. The bad thing about the non-flash devices is that some programs or services use that spare flash, such as Omnisky.

I think you have to look at these devices as great improvements, but only intermediate devices.

Just a thought,

Brad.

Great, now what do I do?

I.M. Anonymous @ 2/27/2001 10:45:05 PM #

So Palm is replacing the IIIxe with the M105 @ $199....I sure as hell won't buy it! I was planning on upgrading to an M300, but now apparently it doesn't exist. Now what am I going to do? I'm not paying $500+ for an M500. Handspring's products are all cheap crap, so I guess that leaves me with the CLIE!?!

This is a tragedy! I really had my hopes up for some great new devices from Palm, but it looks like they are going to ruin themselves.

RE: Great, now what do I do?

RoofusPennymore @ 2/28/2001 3:44:04 PM #

Whadyamean cheap crap? Whats wrong with Handspring?

RE: Great, now what do I do?

I.M. Anonymous @ 3/1/2001 1:46:49 PM #

i think the Handsprings get an undeserved bad rap. when they first hit everyone said they have fragile cases and whatnot. i don't know how true that was back then... and this is now. my brother and i have been using palms for a few years now, since personels. since that lil device i have owned 2 IIIs, a IIIe and now use a IIIxe. with my experience, i don't really see an issue with them. i am considering one as my next device. my brother just made the jump to a Visor before Christmas 2000. he got the Prism 32mghz model. granted it has only been about 10 weeks, but he still loves it. he has had no problems with it (and he has broken his share of palms, the fall from a lab table is no good). i am kicking around the idea of a new palm (i can trade mine in with this crazy warrenty i have). unless there is a new palm that really impresses me, i am thinking about a Handspring Prism. it was about $299 when he got it ($50 more than my IIIxe) and that's with the faster chip and an expansion slot. i guess my real delay is to see the new palms, and hopefully soon we will have the new Kyocera palm-phone available so i can really ponder that. the visor phone seems silly to me, but the new kyocera phone might get the job done. to me the kyocera is a phone with palm features, the visor phone is a visor with a snap in phone. i always leave my phone on, and don't want to only have a phone when my PDA is on and phone module snapped in. the kyocera *seems* to be the logical upgrade to that giant brick thing Qualcomm made (kyocera took over Qualcomm's phone products). anyway, my 2 cents

Is Palm doing ANY market reasearch at all?

I.M. Anonymous @ 2/27/2001 11:23:22 PM #

This is a HORRIBLE decision. The IIIxe was in the "sweet spot", bigger screen than the m100, 4x the memory of the IIIe, and FLASH memory is a very big deal, especially for a program like Datebook4. The m105 will have the stupid dinky screen of the m100 and NO FLASH memory....no upgrades, no programs in ROM. So for a decent screen and Flash ROM you have to shell out for a $400-500 for the m500-m505? Ridiculous.

Handspring is loving this. They can drop their Platinum price down and sell people on their bigger screen (I think this is where FLASH ROM was a big deal on Palms)

Microsoft is loving it too, They will release "Talisker" (CE 4.0) by years end and the new machines will be running 400 MHz XScale processors at half the power of the iPaq's StrongArm. High-end users may move to CE in droves if the 4.0 continues to improve the Pocket PC OS.

This middle ground is where the IIIxe was situated and made it a huge success. Palm is making a big mistake.

RE: Is Palm doing ANY market reasearch at all?

I.M. Anonymous @ 2/28/2001 12:49:10 AM #

ok for one i am tired of hearing tht the m100 has a smaller screen than teh IIIxe. teh resoultions are the same. the only difference is teh about of screen "space" around the actual screen. it only looks smaller cause palm decided to get rid of that extra space. look at ur IIIxe people, you cant write to teh end of teh screen...i know i have a IIIxe and test drove the m100.

as for the rality of there not being a m300 series. yes it is a shame for palm...unless there was some sort of flash rom. or the new os didnt need flash rom to update. before u throw the new baby out with the water, make sure u know the product well and not just its well known rumors.

the screen is smaller!

I.M. Anonymous @ 2/28/2001 2:02:16 AM #

take a ruler to the screen and see, the m100 is really smaller than the III series model

Too many rumors!

I.M. Anonymous @ 2/28/2001 12:31:02 AM #

Rumors, rumors, rumors! All were "cited" anomyously! What should I believe in?

Sammy

One p[ossibility-

I.M. Anonymous @ 2/28/2001 5:01:26 AM #

I always wondered how high the 500 series would be. Palm has price slots for its various devices. There needs to be sufficient cost difference to justify some choosing to purchase the "lesser" model based on price. For example if the color 505 and the bw 500 differ in price by 25 bucks, everyone would choose color.

My point. If there was a replacement for the III series form factor(m300),what would it cost? 350.00 perhaps? How much would the bw 500 cost? 450.00? 500.00? where does that put the color 505? perhaps as high as 599.00.

My figures may be off but the principle is there whatever the price specifics are. This elimination of the III form has efectively reduced the price slots for the "high end" Palms.
No III form means that bw 500 model could come in at 350.00 (perhaps as little as 300.00)
Those who wanted III form factor could now afford the 500 or even a 550 instead.

Rest assured something will fill the 300-350 price range.

RE: One possibility

I.M. Anonymous @ 2/28/2001 10:25:53 AM #

> Rest assured something will fill the 300-350 price range.

The TRGpro already does ( @ $299). Basically the same as the IIIxe with Compact Flash slot.

RE:something

Nate @ 2/28/2001 6:05:27 PM #

I agree. Palm couldn't possibly leave so large a gap between the m105 and the m505 - there is too much room between $200 and $450. There will definitely be a model that comes in around $300, since I think that's another sweet spot as well.

Syncplicity. Redefining Simple. www.cognitiveroot.com

RE: One p[ossibility-

I.M. Anonymous @ 3/1/2001 8:29:33 PM #

They already have a middle ground unit, the IIIc. Its not discontinued, has an upgradable os, has 8 megs, is color. Lower the price to $299.00 and Palm will have a middle price unit with the larger than 100/105 screen real estate, and be a lower cost alternative to the new color 505. Why dump it?

RE: One p[ossibility-

rajen @ 3/1/2001 10:17:23 PM #

well... i am pretty sure the IIIc will not remain in the Palm lineup....Palm has already stated that they are releasing all new Palms under the Palm V form factor....the first of which was the curvy m100.

Who Cares!

ScottG @ 2/28/2001 10:59:03 AM #

Bring on the Color Vx (505)...Already!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ScottG

$300-350 Price Point

I.M. Anonymous @ 2/28/2001 12:05:19 PM #

You have to think if there is a $200 M105 and a $500 M505, that there will be something to fill the gap. While there may not be a m300, it very well could be the grayscale M500. The question would be could the lack of color put it in the right point ~$350.

It would seem to make some sense to Palm if the M505 and M500 were very similar so that they could reduce the number of models but still cover the price point and user demand (and I imagine make more money on increased part volume.)

Anyway just my $0.02.

ROM Flash Upgrade.. Additional source of income.

I.M. Anonymous @ 2/28/2001 1:14:26 PM #

I personally think Palm is making the M105 with non flashable Device because they are looking to this as an additional source of income for them. You have to keep in mind that even though Visors don't have an flashable ROM, their company has stated in their early days that the ROM chip can be replaced with a new one with a new OS which they could or would release and sell. Now whether they actually will ever do that or not I don't know, but they have stated it in writing over a year ago in different adds they were running at the time. I think for Palm they may go this route and make other Palm licensee do the same. Palm realize 1 of their greatest strengths over other PDA's is their sheer numbers and the number of users who use their devices. Palm has mentioned several times that they don't make enough money off of their OS licening it to other vendors. I think if they made nonflashable ROM on all their devices, that would gurantee that every user would have to pay for the OS upgrade as well as hardware giving them another source of income.

It's just my thoughts on this so I really don't know..But I still find it funny how Palm has said they would never charge for an upgrade, but are charging now. Just kinda rubs me the wrong way and looks bad for Palm.

[ No Subject ]

I.M. Anonymous @ 2/28/2001 2:00:43 PM #

Everyone seems to be forgetting about the IIIc. I haven't heard of any plans to phase it out yet. Maybe it's going to be the IIIxe replacement?

Don't forget.,.

Lim M S @ 3/1/2001 6:22:30 AM #

Don't forget TRG/HandEra who will be releasing their new model probably in the US $350-450 mark. Hopefully this will have both the CF & SD slots as well as the new universal connector.

Patience

I.M. Anonymous @ 3/1/2001 6:38:36 AM #

Don't judge Palm yet, the products aren't out yet!

don't count out the m300 yet

I.M. Anonymous @ 3/1/2001 4:46:53 PM #

Palm has enough different features, and enough options to have an m300 series. Maybe cnet thinks that there won't be an m300 because of the m105, but that might not necessarily be true. Think about it:

- Flash ROM or no Flash ROM?
- SD Slot or no SD Slot
- Color Screen v. Monochrome
- 8mb v 2mb

And it goes on... blah blah blah...

Smart product mix would be a whole bunch of different devices where the user can select the configuration he wants, and pay a fair price for it. Thoughts on this anyone?