Rumor: New Details on the Tungsten T3, E and Zire 21

However, that future is A LONG TIME FROM NOW.

I am SO tired of people predicting the downfall of handhelds due to the smartphone market. It will happen, that I don't argue. But it won't happen ANYTIME SOON, because smartphones right now are TOO DARN EXPENSIVE, and that won't change anytime soon.

The other problem is that MOST people don't want a smartphone, unless its going to be FREE or close to FREE, since they can get a cell phone for that price. When smartphones get CLOSE to regular cells, then MAYBE we'll see this turn around. But that's a very long time out. Right now, the manufacturers and carriers just are NOT going to give away smartphones, or make them competitive to the other phones on the market. Until that happens, smartphones WILL NOT KILL HANDHELDS.

Sheesh, folks have been predicting smartphones killing the handheld market for a couple years now. Kinda like predicting that M$ handhelds will kill Palm OS handhelds in the "next year or two". You'd think that by now these folks would be embarrased (for those not employed to provide these predictions) or fired (For those that ARE employed to do so) and yet they don't seem to be.

Too bad.

There will be some people who want a smartphone to have PDA functionality in the phone they already carry. Something like a Handera 600.

There will be some people who want a PDA with cellular and/or wireless to give them cellphone functionality in the PDA they already carry. Something like a Tungsten C or W, except with stereo.

There will be some people who want entirely separate devices that make no compromises.

There will be many people who feel they only need one device or the other, and will be happy with a cheap mass-market device.

Once the circuitry gets cheap enough, you may be able to throw PDA or cellphone functionality into either device with little penalty in size or cost, but that day is still a ways off.

"All opinions posted are my own, and not those of my employers, who are appalled."

1. i like a small phone, i can take on me without
carrying a relatively big device, when not needed
2. i like gadgets like most people here, and i hate to
change both devices at the same time.
3. i love palm os and there is no device i'd like yet.
4. i love to be independant on my power. ie if the
phone is out of power why shall my pda be....???
5. standby times of smartphones are just unacceptable
for people using the device (phone/pda) heavily.
6. no acceptable handsfree devices for car use yet.

so now i also have to defend the smartphones, as i believe they have their market and am sure some people prefer the integrated devices. i cannot follow the guy who claimed problems in airlines, i, at my times of communicator and treo 180 could always explain and proof that the phone was off.......they did though tell me not to use the smartphone during take-off and landing as all electronic devices should be switched off.

nevertheless i really look forward to the tungsten t3
the bluetooth combo with big memory is what i need, as i hadle my email while travelling with my palm.

currently i use a clie t665c in combo with a bluetooth memostick and an ericsson t68......great except the memory and the bluetooth memostick, which sticks out of the clie...........

just my 5 cents.

enjoy
chris

As for the flying, I do that ever week and have a sort of reverse problem. They will let you use your phone on the ground until the door is closed. A couple of airlines now let you use them when taxiing in. But, even though I can use my phone, I cannot use my PDA to look up phone numbers for that phone - until we hit 10,000 feet. Maybe the idea would be a chamelon phone that looks like a PDA in the air and a phone on the ground. That might interest me. hmmmm been yelled at plenty but never had something taken away. You must fly with a mean flight crew.

Dr. Steve Lansing

Hehe, yeah I do the bulk of my flying in SE Asia and Asia proper and some of those flight crews don't understand customer service correctly and some are so nice it'll make you blush. As for the number lookup problem the solution is simple: bluetooth. What I mean by that is palm and phone sync, though bluetooth is the best as you can update your phone with ur updated palm contacts on the fly, so to speak (before the airplane doors close).

I agree with the posters who complain about battery life as that is a big problem. Especially on those 16 hour flights. I gotta say now that I am back to two devices I like it. My problem is that I have to wear a suit often and hauling around two devices over one is bulky without a bag but the Clie is so slim I can't really complain.

I think I need a serious mobile device overhaul. This T3 looks to fit the bill now does anyone have any suggestions on a mobile phone? I am currently using an Ericsson T39m (actually is an old one I took out of retirement after dumping the P800). Great device but I would like one of those color phones with a camera (and bluethooth of course).

Seriously, Palm has got the marketing right on the low end Zire. My wife uses my old Vx and saw a Zire at a store one day and fell in love with it. Never mind that her Vx is better in every way except weight & OS version. She was magnetized by that "Mary Kay" image.

The Sony SJ20 has recently been dropped to $99 and is light years ahead of the Zire from a technical standpoint. Surely Palm will dump the 160x160 dark age resolution and/or give SD expansion and/or color screen and/or shrink the device to the smallest one of all time.

Sony won't have the marketing saavy, but their side by side product will visually blow the Z21 away at the sub-$100 price point. IMO, and I'm a Palm guy.

Pat Horne; www.churchoflivingfaith.com

Basically a T2 with a thumboard slider. I'd pay $300 for that.

It WILL be mp3 capable, they can't afford not to offer that since it would seriously cripple the sales.

Can you imagine the two-fold backwards compatability problems Joe 6-Packs are going to have with this new Zire--*every* OS5-enhanced program to date has assumed that a 5-way navigator or a Sony jog dial will be present. If this Z21 mimicks the original Zire that closely, the same 4-button layout will prevail. Also, most OS5-specific titles also assume a minimum fixed screen resolution of 320*320...with this new Zire and the upcoming Treo also at 160*160 (albeit in color) I think we can expect some developer headaches and a lot of folks keeping their fingers crossed for updates to existing apps/games.

In short, my personal summary of the new units:

T3: Great concept that has taken way too long to appear. I'm personally a slider fan but I'd still prefer a long & think m515 tablet style unit with VG. I do not care at all for the new "organic" button layout. I'll stick with my T2 for a while longer. Right now, Palm had better make sure the build quality is rock solid and all the lingering bugs are squashed before this puppy ships.

T|E: Wow, I have to admit I am very surprised about how much Palm is packing into a $200 unit. The *only* possible caveat I could think of at this time would be screen quality (will it be a T or a T2 type screen?), mp3 volume, and build quality. Since I have (and many PIC faithful) have *zero* use for BT at this time, the E would be a perfect unit. But why oh why did Palm not see fit to include the UC instead of the mini USB port? That just reeks of cheapness. If nothing else, the UC should be a de facto standard on all Tungsten handhelds (yes, yes, I know that Tungsten does not necessarily equal high-end handhelds but you'd think standardization of expansion would be the goal of units targeted at corporations or enterprise users). Still, the E has the potential to be the best bang for the buck Palm *EVER*!

Z21: Well, I never did care for the original Zire and it looks like I still won't care for this one. If this one is still non-backlit and adhering to the same (lack of) buttons as the original Zire I'll eat my socks. The inclusion of the faster CPU and OS 5 is _very_ puzzling to me...I thought Palm announced last fall that we'd still see OS 4.x units for the forseeable future? I'd rather see Palm introduce a very sleek OS 4.x handheld at this price point, fitted with a nice backlit screen (like m500) and a decent button layout-perhaps even a T|T style D-pad to keep all the kids happy? I was also hoping the mini USB cable silliness was a temporary solution just for the Zire...now it looks like it's spreading to the Tungsten line as well. Still, this will sell loads of units-it's not nearly as severely crippled /obsolete in '03 at $99 as the Zire was in '02 at the same price point.