Comments on: 2002: THE HANDHELD YEAR IN REVIEW

It's that time again, Ryan, PalmInfocenter Editor in Chief, takes a look back at the year past. It was quite an exciting time for the Palm Economy as well as a year of many transitions. New handhelds, companies and controversies made 2002 quite a memorable year for PDA enthusiasts.

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Great year!

markgm @ 12/31/2002 3:34:16 PM #

It's been a great year for handhelds. While progress appears slow while living it, a lot has happened looking back over the year. I can only hope next year has many new advancements.

A year already?

wwiiolds @ 12/31/2002 4:23:43 PM #

2002 was the year my interest in handhelds really took off. Nice thinking back to all the excitement and rumors last spring and summer.

Here's to another great year!

"Lost are only those who abandom themselves."

- Oberst Hans-Ulrich Rudel

Please give credit where it's due

an0nym0vs @ 12/31/2002 6:31:47 PM #

"Palm Inc confirmed another problem first reported by PIC when they announced that the m130 did not in fact have a full 16-Bit color screen as first claimed."

PIC was not the first to report this - Elisa Batista of Wired deserves that credit; She was the first journalist to believe the evidence, follow-up with Palm, and publish a story about the 12-bit m130 screen. PIC's own 'first report' references her article:
http://www.palminfocenter.com/view_Story.asp?ID=4039
If not for her article, I don't think the m130 story would've been reported here at all, as PIC's editors did not believe the m130 was 12-bit:
http://www.palminfocenter.com/view_story.asp?ID=3652#52966

an0n

RE: Please give credit where it's due

terrysalmi @ 12/31/2002 10:13:25 PM #

To be more specific, PIC was not the first to report this, but it WAS a PIC user on the message boards who first made the claim and defended it through months of disbelief from other readers and started the entire process...

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RE: Please give credit where it's due

cbulock @ 1/1/2003 2:48:51 AM #

You did a great job in presenting your evidense about the screen and it is a shame so many people still wouldn't believe the facts. Great job on standing your ground and starting the process that eventally lead to Palm admitting the screen was 12-bit (well, they kinda admitted it).

RE: Please give credit where it's due

Admin @ 1/2/2003 12:38:47 PM #

You are right, what I ment to convey is that the problem was first brought up on PIC. I updated the article to reflect that. Hats off to you for sticking to your guns on this one.

What a year

Massman82 @ 12/31/2002 7:52:50 PM #

And I'm looking forward to the next one :).

Roman Pedan
Palm V/Vx
Will get a Palm OS 5 handheld

RE: What a year

Timothy Rapson @ 12/31/2002 8:18:18 PM #

With neither the the Zire nor the Tungstens the least bit interesting to me, it has not been a fulfilling product cycle in the second half of 2002.

But, the first half brought the PalmSource glimpse of what turned out to be the best Palm OS handheld ever. The first truly useful and satisfying PDA I have ever owned; the NR70V.

I still can't believe how weak Palm's $100-$500 offerings turn out to be. I would not want any of them. I hope Palm does something in this area before every PDA buyer on the planet buys a Sony (great models all over that range) or Dell Axims (OK, I would only want an Axim with Palm OS but they are competition.)

The biggest stories may be what didn't happen.

*Not enough PPCs at reasonable prices showed up to take any market share from Palm OS models. But so many were announced that sales of current PPCs are probably way down.

*The Sharp Zaurus did not sell and Sharp is not delivering the smaller model to the US at all.

*OS 5 was late and delivered practically nothing, not even a MP3 player.

Well, next year.

What about the NX series?

rnh7372 @ 12/31/2002 8:53:08 PM #

I didn't see any mention of the NX series...

RE: What about the NX series?

markpmc @ 1/1/2003 4:43:01 PM #

I guess it's just one of the 10 that Sony introduced last year. PIC still hasn't published a review of the NX series. I hope that Sony hits the ground running next week at CES. The street price for the PEG-T665C has dropped to $300 (same as the SJ30)...

markpmc

OS 6 in 2003 but not on handhelds?

SaabCaptain @ 12/31/2002 10:29:45 PM #

I am confused by the comment that OS 6 might be released from PalmSource to manufacturers in 2003 but might not appear on any handhelds... Why wouldn't manfacturers embrace a new OS on their high end models... after all OS 6 and the changes it will bring are inevitable and we have to start the change at some point?

owned: Pilot 5000, PalmPilot Pro, Palm V, IIIc, m505, Sony T615, TUNGSTEN T!!

RE: OS 6 in 2003 but not on handhelds?

cbulock @ 1/1/2003 1:44:51 PM #

It would probably take a little while from the time the manufactures recieve the OS until they put it on devices. Seems like OS5 was shipped out in mid-summer, but devices didn't show up until the end of October.

RE: OS 6 in 2003 but not on handhelds?

hotpaw4 @ 1/1/2003 4:03:34 PM #

OS 5 API's and hardware prototypes were first introduced to the developer community in early December '01. The last SDK labeled OS 5.0 came out in early April (the mid-summer Golden Master was labeled 5.1). OS 5.0 handhelds weren't ready for shipping till late October '02, almost 11 months after the API's were revealed.

OS 6 is rumored to require a much smaller change in hardware architecture, but probably a huge change for new applications (perhaps similar in the impact to moving an app from MS/DOS to Windows95, or from Mac OS 9 to OS X Cocoa).

it's "its," not "it's"

drixter @ 1/2/2003 10:26:56 AM #

Ryan, dude, love ya but you're driving me nuts with misspelling "its" every other article.

"It's" is correct only when it's a contraction for "it is", as in this sentence, or "baby, it's cold outside".

"Its" is correct when it's possessive, as in "the dog wagged its tail"

So in this article, "It's that time again" was fine, but "Palm unveiled it's new Tungsten" should have been "Palm unveiled its new Tungsten". I know this is minor, but MAN it makes me crazy.

Oh, and thanks for putting out an informative website that I check weekly!