Palm IIIc Price Drops to Compete with Prism

Posted By: Ed Monday, October 16, 2000 9:38:12 AM

Palm is expected to announce today that they will be dropping the price of its color Palm IIIc to $329 from $399. This is a clear attempt to keep buyers interested in its color device, now that Handspring has released the Prism. The Prism offers over 65 thousand colors while the IIIc can display only 256, but with this price drop the IIIc now costs $120 less.

Both devices run OS 3.5 and have the same screen resolution, 160x160. Both have rechargeable batteries that promise 6 hours of continuous use. The Prism is slightly heavier, 6.9 oz verses 6.8 oz., and slightly larger, 4.8" x 3.0" x 0.8" (11.52 cu.in.), verses 5.06" x 3.17" x .67" (10.74 cu.in.).

Palm will also announce a promotion that offers free peripherals with the purchase of a IIIc, including three color styli, a luggage tag, and a CD containing some games, an ebook reader, a drawing program and reminder functions. It should run through January 8.

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Fact check anyone?

megalodon @ 10/16/2000 10:14:36 AM #

"The Prism offers over 56 thousand colors"

I think you mean 65,538 colors.

"but with this price drop the IIIc now costs $170 less."

Last time I checked, $449 minus $329 was $120, not $170.

RE: Fact check anyone?

Ed @ 10/16/2000 10:30:03 AM #

Hey, thanks for pointing out that I transposed the 5 and the 6 to whack off a few thousand colors from the Prism. I'm sure Handspring wouldn't appreciate it. And I did say it offers "over 56 thousand", which is true but not very accurate. ;-) I've made the change.

But I don't know where you checked but my handy Palm calculator continues to insist that $499 - $329 = $170.

---
Plenipotentiary
Palm Infocenter

RE: Fact check anyone?

I.M. Anonymous @ 10/16/2000 12:01:25 PM #

The IIIC is only $399, not $449

RE: Fact check anyone?

I.M. Anonymous @ 10/16/2000 12:01:25 PM #

The Palm IIIc price is being reduced to $329. The Handspring Prism is being introduced at $449, not $499. Hence, $120 is the correct difference between the Prism $449 and the IIIc at $329.

RE: Fact check anyone?

Ed @ 10/16/2000 12:12:04 PM #

I'm always happy when someone points out when I screw something like this up because I use it as an excuse to plead for more people to submit articles.

I love writing this stuff but I have a real job that pays me money, unlike the Palm Infocenter, so I generally have to throw these articles out during coffee breaks and lunch. This means I have about 5 minutes for each one. Sadly, I occasionally get something wrong, like I did here. But if more of you helped out by using the Contribute link there on the left side of the page, I could spend more time on the stuff I write. If you see a bit of news that we haven't covered yet, just write a paragraph or two about it and send it to us.

If you don't have time to do this, politely pointing out that I'm a chowderhead is always welcome, too. Snotty comments don't accomplish anything besides damaging your Karma.

---
Plenipotentiary
Palm Infocenter

RE: Fact check anyone?

I.M. Anonymous @ 10/16/2000 10:23:29 PM #

you're doing a great job veen with the few mistakes.

RE: Fact check anyone?

I.M. Anonymous @ 10/18/2000 2:14:49 PM #

A correction to the correction: Palm initially brought out the Palm IIIc at $449...same as the Handspring.

compatibility

Jeff @ 10/16/2000 10:57:13 AM #

there arent many true color software for 256 color. will there be any for 65K color. I doubted. Visor Platinum should be the best for now. its fast. no more afterburner guys......

Still has the same shit-ass 160x160 pixel display...

I.M. Anonymous @ 10/17/2000 1:00:52 AM #

What everyone seems to be forgetting is that this device still has the same old 160x160 pixel display. Sure 16-bit color is a big step up from what we had, but what has it been - 5 YEARS at this resolution?!? I'm just simply not interested in seeing tiny black lines in between the pixels on a color device – period.

Though I'm a hardcore Palm OS fan, the fact remains that the screen on Casio’s PPCs will make this puppy look like it's playing in the sandbox. Maybe-hopefully-possibly- - Palm will break the 160x160 barrier when they release their rumoured Palm V-like color device next spring. I happy to see HandSpring pushing the envelope though - it'll force Palm off it's ass...

The Enforcer

It suddenly got a lot harder to chose

I.M. Anonymous @ 10/17/2000 2:07:17 AM #

Well basically I had set in my mind that a deluxe was the way to go for me. The platinum coming out was a good thing, not only do I get a faster processor but the latest palm os. But now that palm dropped the price of the IIIc it can be found for 300 dollars (same as a platinum). So now its either a color screen with slower cpu and serial connection or a monochrome screen with a fast cpu and usb. My main purpose for the device is gonna be offline web browsing (till affordable remote becomes available) and ebook reading. What have your experiences been? Is monochrome really hard on the eyes? But ive also heard that using avantgo can take hours on a serial connection to hot sync... Maybe I should just blow the wad on the Prism but then I have to decide, pocket PC or Prism and at that point it becomes a Palm OS vs WinCE!@#!@#!# crap! ;-)

RE: It suddenly got a lot harder to chose

I.M. Anonymous @ 10/17/2000 7:48:07 AM #

I have a IIIc and have found it great as an e-book reader. I also use it for a lot of other things. I tried reading e-books with my IIIx, but found that it wasn't always convenient to be around a light source, and the backlighting doesn't really help that much.

Avantgo

Raishe_werk @ 10/17/2000 11:25:33 AM #

it only takes hours if you are on a sub 26.4 modem. i am on a dial up at home and it takes a min or two. i do most of my syncing at work cause they have several T3's. one of the few pluses of working for national level HMO.
anyway i am going to keep preaching and begging for some one to port over a palm OS to the IPAQ. there is a link ( http://www.conduits.com/ce/apps/copilot.asp ), ( http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Monitor/8604/Beta/PilotCE/ ). they are aimed at Win Ce, *actually upon closer examination, they look like the same thing*. the ultimate (for me) would be an IPAQ running Palm OS, ported to 320*260 screen. then life would be phat..
till then, i will pray that the Palm Vc will be a step in the right direction

-Raishe
"Moster Pig kills Jesus
More at 11"

RE: It suddenly got a lot harder to chose

I.M. Anonymous @ 10/17/2000 1:59:14 PM #

Thanks that helps alot. Sounds like the IIIc for me. I really wish the visors had flash ram, that is the one thing preventing me from springing for the platinum or even the deluxe. As for the prism, I would rather double the cost and pickup a notebook.

65 thousand colors not possible

I.M. Anonymous @ 10/17/2000 3:22:10 PM #

The screen is only 160 x 160 pixels right? Well 160*160=25,600 which means that even if it can choose from a pallete of 65 thousand+ colors it can only display 25,600 colors on screen at a time 1 color per pixel which would be pointless.
Matt

RE: 65 thousand colors not possible

maven @ 10/17/2000 7:28:29 PM #

That's a *palette* of 65k colors. That means you have 65,000 to choose from. It's kind of like saying "they have shirts in thousands of colors... whats the point? You can only wear one at a time!"

Anyway, the screen looks beautiful. :-) There's kind of a 3-d effect to icons, etc.

RE: 65 thousand colors not possible

ardiri @ 10/17/2000 9:03:50 PM #

That's a *palette* of 65k colors. That means you have 65,000 to choose from. It's kind of like saying "they have shirts in thousands of colors... whats the point? You can only wear one at a time!"

just to update, the palette is 16 bit, that is - it defines colors in a 5,6,5 manner - 5 bits for red, 6 bits for green and 5 bits for blue (this is hardware dependent). the operating system uses a "direct color" scenario, where you define the a pixel as a series of red, green and blue values.

16 bit = 2^16-1 colors.. thats 65536 unique colors.

the screen may be 160x160, which means at any one time, there can only be 25600 unique colors on the screen (changes of this, very small) :P the 16 bit color idea is such that you have a wider range of colors to choose from.

// az
aaron@ardiri.com
http://www.ardiri.com/

why

G. Daniel Silva @ 10/17/2000 11:19:51 PM #

Why IIIc ...Why not a palm Vc!!!
you at palm must be on vacation. Why (ipaq and prism)
After 5 continuous years of support and thousands of dollars on mutiple palm units...
I am writting this on a ipaq... but i would die for a Vc...WHY...

simplicity or complacency