Staples Palm TX & Tungsten E2 Holiday Sale

Posted By: Kris Keilhack Monday, December 10, 2007 9:16:38 AM

There's still a chance for Palm OS handheld stalwarts who might have missed out on Palm's superb Black Friday sale to pick up a heavily discounted Palm PDA for themselves or as a gift this Christmas season. Staples is currently offering the Palm TX for $179 with free shipping on Staples.com. For those of us that prefer instant gratification, the brick and mortar Staples stores are featuring a $199 TX and a $149 Tungsten E2 in this week's retail circular.

Unlike the Palm Black Friday offer, Staples is not bundling free wireless keyboard with purchase but instead come in at a price $20 below last month’s Palm offer. In addition, Staples.com has a good reputation for expeditiously processing and shipping orders and, presumably, returns would be handled a bit more easily than from the Palm Store. Finally, Staples has their Rewards frequent buyer program that offers a bit of additional incentive to purchase a TX or E2 from either their retail stores or website.

Palm PDA Sale Staples In order to achieve the $179 online price on the TX, two coupons must be applied. The first is a TX-exclusive coupon that takes $100 off the TX’s regular price "44769". This code can be combined (aka "stacked") with a standard Staples online coupon to take $20 of any for greater purchase "63991" to lower the final price down to $179.99.

A quick trip to Staples on December 8th, while doing some holiday shopping, revealed the PDA section to still be intact with a reasonable selection of Palm-branded peripherals and Handmark software CDs still available.

With the recent disappearance of all Palm products from Office Depot stores and the unfortunate closure of the entire CompUSA chain, Staples and Office Max are looking like the best remaining retail chains other than Palm's own stores for finding Palm handhelds and peripherals.

Thanks to FatWallet for the heads-up on the deal.

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Already sold-out

raymondg @ 12/10/2007 1:03:28 PM #

That was fast

Dell is a Joke,

philpalm @ 12/10/2007 1:42:54 PM #

They (Dell)were selling the plain Tungsten E2 for $199 was that a misprint?

Staples

mbgrayson @ 12/10/2007 2:51:56 PM #

FYI:
Staples changed their 'Rewards' program earlier this year to make it far less attractive. You only get money back for paper and ink/toner purchases. Consumer electronics are no longer counted toward your reward check. I know because i bought several computer and electronic items, expecting a reward. Then I got my $3 reward, based only on ink and paper purchases.

Oh Well.....

Sold out already? Wow!

hkklife @ 12/10/2007 3:22:59 PM #

Methinks this has got to be one of just a few possible scenarios:

1. Palm is pulling out all of the stops to push their remaining 3 PDA models onto the market and see if there's still any level of consumer interest in them (thus being a good barometer if Palm should release one of the new PDA designs in 2008 that they probably already have in the can)

2. Palm is dumping inventory on the maarket here at year-end/holiday season to clear the last remaining PDA stocks. Perhaps even doing this at the behest of Elevation as they prepare to gut the lineup and start overhauling the lineup throughout '08 & '09?

3. With the EOLing of the Fooleo, Palm is desperately trying to beef up this quarter's bottom line with some firesale PDA pricing (ie doing everything they can do to generate non-carrier-dependent revenue)

More interesting of all is that it appears (based on the deal forums/PIC/Brighthand chatter), that these things are actually being bought by *someone*. Palm's own e-store was backordered for 5-8 days on the TX late in November and now Staples is sold out. I was at BB today and they were already sold out of the TX and down to just a few E2's (but had a ton of them hanging on pegs last week when I went in there to return something).

Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX-->Treo 700P

Huh?

mikecane @ 12/10/2007 3:24:15 PM #

The Staples I've been in in NYC don't have *any* Palm PDAs in and haven't for months.

RE: Huh?

hkklife @ 12/10/2007 3:36:43 PM #

I was in Staples in Detroit & Chicago in October and they had tons of 'em.

And in NC, SC, & GA I've seen 'em aplenty. Various states of disrepair/organization, yes, but they still have 'em!

Maybe the juggernaut that is, ahem, the flagship Rockefeller Center Palm retail store made all NYC-area Staples dump their PDA department ASAP!

http://www.palminfocenter.com/news/8946/palm-opens-flagship-retail-store-in-rockefeller-center/

P.S. Is the Rockefeller Center store still open? It's about a year old now, so it did manage to live past TVoR's predicted date of demise.

Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX-->Treo 700P

RE: Huh?

SeldomVisitor @ 12/10/2007 3:40:20 PM #

> ...P.S. Is the Rockefeller Center store still open? It's about a
> year old now, so it did manage to live past TVoR's predicted date
> of demise.

A one-year lease in such a location would seem rather...unlikely...to me. Maybe 3 years? 5?

RE: Huh?

hkklife @ 12/10/2007 4:12:46 PM #

A 1 year lease, yes, but didn't I/you/we read somewhere that Palm doesn't really operate/lease/operate/staff/stock/service these stores, as it's done all by some generic-esque wireless accessory cell phone merchant like "Wireles Solutions" or some such?

You know, the kinds of places you see in airports hawking nifty but hideously overpriced handsets and periperhals?
They pretty much just use the Palm logo/name due to the brand awareness (presumably a win-win for all parties involved)?

I figure that if the Palm thingie fell through they'd just turn the spot into a higher-end cell phone shop.

Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX-->Treo 700P

RE: Huh?

Gekko @ 12/10/2007 10:19:49 PM #

>it's done all by some generic-esque wireless accessory cell phone merchant like "Wireles Solutions" or some such?

yes.

I still use my TX daily.

VampireLestat @ 12/10/2007 10:08:56 PM #

Although I carry my 680 with me everywhere and use that as my Palm PDA, I also still heavily use my TX to listen to the Howard Stern show or Art Bell/Coast to Coast AM while in bed, when trying to sleep.

Goes to show there are plenty of roles for non phone centric devices.

Right now I have:
- T5 (on stand by as emergency replacement for TX)
- TX (mp3s of talk shows in bed)
- 680 (work, heavy PIM use, 10$ prepaid card cell phone for emergencies and quick calls)
- My new sexy Lyra by RCA MC4002A mp3/video player with OLED SCREEN! (in wintet coat for MP3s while commuting to work or when jogging).

point is, I have multiple devices adapted to different tasks in my life.

Palm talking all the BS that PDAs are dead is just that, BS.
To prosper, they have to have different products, good products, and BE THERE in the market as a company you know you can count on long term.

They really needs to get OLED on all the Palms and get some new PDAs out there asap.

RE: I still use my TX daily.

VampireLestat @ 12/10/2007 10:11:22 PM #

oh yeah, and my TX serves as a backup alarm clock to my 680.
hehe I know is sounds like I am underusing my TX, but it still play a very important role for me.

but granted, the 680 has become my handheld of choice.
the keyb and cell, and removable batt, and mic and cam, it is unlocked, on and on make it the best choice.

RE: I still use my TX daily.

Gekko @ 12/10/2007 10:16:48 PM #

>the keyb and cell, and removable batt, and mic and cam, it is unlocked, on and on make it the best choice.

welcome to 2004. i told you so.

There's no reason to buy/manage/charge/carry/sync/fight/fumble with 2+ devices when ONE Smartphone can do it all.

RE: I still use my TX daily.

VampireLestat @ 12/10/2007 10:22:50 PM #

lizard,

yeah but the problem in 2007 is that there is no single pda-cellphone that integrates all the best things in 1.

pdas still have a very important role for those who cant afford phones, or who already have a phone they cant or dont want to part with, those looking for a device that is better designed for a specific task, etc

Your and Ed PDA-Killer Colligan's vision of a 1 smartphone fits all world is very misguided.

The TX is amazing device for millions of people.
But it is way overdue for an upgrade.
And by that I mean OLED.

RE: I still use my TX daily.

VampireLestat @ 12/10/2007 10:27:00 PM #

oh and also, my dear dear little reptilian friend, the first Palm smartphone to actually be acceptable to me was the 680 because it was GSM unlocked. One of the main complaints against Treos back in the day, and today for that matter, is carrier price goucing, branding, control (firmware, limits, wifi interdiction), etc.

The 680 was the first free PDA-like PDA phone.

I bought the 680 because of the Foleo but then was betrayed, yet again by Ed PDA-killer Colligan. But it was perhaps a good-bad thing as I got to see that the 680 is actually a handheld that just so happen to be very good for cell phone calls; but if a person did not want a plan, they could just hold down the power button for 5 seconds and turn off the cell radio.

RE: I still use my TX daily.

Gekko @ 12/10/2007 10:53:40 PM #

enjoy.

RE: I still use my TX daily.

DrewT3 @ 12/10/2007 11:33:57 PM #

I still use my T3 as a tip calculator when I order chinese food delivered.

RE: I still use my TX daily.

hoodoo @ 12/11/2007 3:21:03 PM #

if anyone in Canada is looking for a T3: $150

http://www.factorydirect.ca/catalog/combo_spec.php?pcode=FC0061&id=181

Picked up mine last night.

JonAcheson @ 12/14/2007 2:22:17 PM #

I picked up a TX as a backup for when my Tapwave Zodiac 2 eventually dies. Hopefully that won't be for a long time.

I didn't pick up any accessories for it, I figure when they cancel the model I can scoop them up for fire sale prices.

FWIW, they were down to three or so in stock when I bought mine. And I got the impression that once they were gone, they weren't coming back.

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