Palm Hints at Three New Handhelds

Posted By: Ed Wednesday, June 12, 2002 8:24:44 AM

Palm Inc.'s interim CEO Eric Benhamou said yesterday that his company plans to introduce three new handhelds this fall, covering a range of prices and features, according to ZDnet.

One is a smartphone that runs the just completed Palm OS 5. It has long been rumored that Palm will release in the second half of this year a model capable of handling both wireless voice and data, though until now the company has only said it will release devices with wireless capabilities.

The company announced earlier this year that it would be using Texas Instruments's OMAP processors in its Palm OS 5 devices. These processors have built-in support for GSM, GPRS, UMTS, EDGE, WCDMA, and CDMA2000. Of course, the radio equipment must also be included in the handheld. Mr. Benhamou didn't say what wireless standard the smartphone would use.

Palm also intends to release an entry level model that costs less than $100, though it is likely to be just under that mark. This will, of course, be a basic model with minimal features but will appeal to very price conscious buyers. Palm believes this model will be appealing to a very large number of potential customers. Also, it could lead to future sales of more expensive handhelds. "First-time Palm users want to upgrade one year to 18 months later," Mr. Benhamou said.

No information is available on the third model.

Mr. Benhamou also said his company will eventually release models with built-in keyboards, though he didn't say when.

Palm's Chairman and interim CEO was speaking at the CIBC World Markets' communications conference.

Thanks to Zan Hecht for the tip. -Ed

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It's about time!

Sholey @ 6/12/2002 8:47:30 AM #
Lets hope Palm gets it right the first time! We could use some innovation from Palm.

RE: It's about time!
Fammy @ 6/12/2002 8:50:58 AM #
Reinventing the PDA market wasn't enough innovation. =)

_____
Fammy
RE: It's about time!
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/12/2002 1:43:51 PM #
Amen. Nobody wants to see another m505 launched!
RE: It's about time!
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/12/2002 6:41:49 PM #
or a Clie 415 :)
RE: It's about time!
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/12/2002 6:44:04 PM #
It's going to be another m5xx series with OS5. That's it.

Typo

I.M. Anonymous @ 6/12/2002 8:51:47 AM #
Quote: 'that costs less than $100, though it is likely to be just under that mark'
I think you mean: OVER that mark?!

Keep up the good work! This is for me THE Palm Information Center!
Greetings, Roel.

RE: Typo
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/12/2002 8:55:31 AM #
Probably not a typo - he just means that while it will be under $100 it will be just under that price - such as $99.99
No Typo
Ed @ 6/12/2002 9:09:38 AM #
Right. I guess it's one of my pet peeves when companies say "We have a product that sells for less than $100" when the price is $99.99. To me, that IS $100. That's one of the reasons why I round the prices in the articles to the nearest dollar and, if they are expensive enough, to the nearest $5.

---
News Editor
''Less than $100" = $99.99''
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/12/2002 7:55:40 PM #
Agreed. Technicalities...

Too little too late

I.M. Anonymous @ 6/12/2002 8:55:43 AM #
I have already given up with Palm as a result of their long development cycle and over-priced products, as compared with Sony and Handspring.
RE: Too little too late
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/12/2002 9:04:37 AM #
Don't forget - Palm still own 100% of PalmSource, Inc - the company who power your beloved Sony and Handspring devices. PalmSource will keep Palm, Inc above water. I know a few more details than described here in relation to the new handhelds and they will be much better recieved than the last few models Palm, Inc have released...
RE: Too little too late
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/12/2002 9:23:21 AM #
maybe it's because instead of working on the coolest "clie" that uses a CPU that will be obsolete soon, Palm is more interested in what they can do with the ARM on PalmOS 5
RE: Too little too late
Thaddeus Cultt @ 6/12/2002 10:43:49 AM #
I loved my Cliés, but after 3 defective units in 2 months, I went back to Palm and the m515. I miss the hi-res, but the battery life makes up for it.

The only way, IMHO, for Palm OS to continue to support its lead over PocketPC is by innovations from ALL its supporting companies. I, still for the life of me, can't figure out how come there's so much animosity between Palm OS users. If you need to feel your handheld is best to make it in life, don't let me stop you.

A new $100 handheld would be great. My daughter (going on 9 years old) and had her m105 for almost a year now, and loves it. She uses it at school for assignments, at home to keep track of phone numbers and games. It's nice to know that there will be another affordable palm for her when she need to replace this one.

Palm makes a great line of devices, as do Handspring, Sony and Handera, it's going to be great to see what everyone has in store for OS5 and the new ARM processers.


TC

"...in the end the only one left smiling was the Jester, and his was only painted on..." - TC

RE: Too little too late
Altema @ 6/12/2002 11:03:29 AM #
I hope they break some new ground, but realize that they should not alienate their existing user base. I just purchased a GPS and am not ready to dump it just yet. Still, it will be interesting to see what they come up with, especially with the ARM processors.

RE: Too little too late
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/12/2002 6:45:50 PM #
Whatever Palm comes up with Sony will decimate with a better, more capable unit. That's Sony's game -- to be THE Palm PDA. They can pump out units every three months while Palm takes years to change the case.
RE: Too little too late
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/12/2002 8:02:57 PM #
Sony may put out the "top high-end unit" or however you want to put that, but how do you explain the fact that Palm still sells more units than any of the licensees?

I'd say part of it is more resellers--anyone who sells any Palm OS devices sells ones from Palm (i.e. stores--b&m and Web, not buying directly from a mfr.). Go into Staples--Palm and Handspring. Office Depot--just Palm (they did carry Visors briefly, but not anymore). Office Max--just Palm, IIRC. MicroCenter--Palm and Sony. BestBuy, CompUSA/CoZone--all of the above, and maybe still a HandEra 330 too.

Without going into "this Web store carries x, y, and z, and this one..." ad infinitum, I'd say much the same is true on the Web. Palm is sold in more stores.

RE: Too little too late
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/13/2002 4:28:16 AM #
Palm plays in the low-end 'disposable lighter' PDA market. Sony goes for the higher margin 'deluxe' market and will sell less product at $500 than Palm will at $150. Palm will never be the innovative leader in the Palm market, that's Sony's job; Palm will be the low-end and middle market leader for those that want cheap and no-frills PDAs. Sony and Palm can easily co-exist since they have different target markets.
RE: Too little too late
Crash Override @ 6/13/2002 2:51:14 PM #
thats rubbish! at least Palms can be relied upon not to break every 5 minutes

RE: Too little too late
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/13/2002 5:45:11 PM #
Rubbish? Palms won't break every 5 minutes -- O.K. they also won't play audio, have hi-resolution 320 x 460 screens, soft grafitti, and enhanced IR ports. There is a definite technology gap between Palm's 'high end' m515 in term of functionality and Sony's high end NR series. This cannot be debated and has no relation to reliabiltiy, which neither Palm nor Sony can claim to be perfect at.


Palm smartphone

I.M. Anonymous @ 6/12/2002 9:00:18 AM #
This will be very welcome in the marketplace. BUT!!! While I have no sound sales data to go on, I seriously doubt that many will sell if they are priced similarly to the Handspring Treo. The price is outrageous. £600 ($1000) for a non-contract phone (£400 with £20-monthly contract)? You must be kidding! At half the price you can afford to consider it. As cool and useful as it is, there is a certain pain barrier at which the general gadget consumer will bottom out. Above that level, only executives and the like will be able to afford it, and there are not too many of them.
Johnny Christoffersen - UK
RE: Palm smartphone
Token User @ 6/12/2002 1:29:52 PM #
Recent stats I heard at the BREW Developers conference in San Diego ...
Cellular phone market penetration at greater than 900 MILLION globally. PDA market penetration at about the 20 MILLION mark globally. Approximately 400 MILLION cellphones were purchased last year - mostly to replace existing handsets.

So, which market do you want to attack? These guys need to remember that no matter how cool a PDA/Cellphone hybrid might be, the primary application for these units is to TALK (not text/sms/email) to people.

Time will tell.

RE: Palm smartphone
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/12/2002 6:19:32 PM #
I agree that the primary use will be to talk, but it also depends on how well-designed it is--after all, if you have a device that is good as a phone but hard to use as a PDA, how worth it is it? Some people would rather just get two separate devices.

As much as I like the Handspring Treo line, one of the main reasons I'm looking at the Treo 90 is that I don't want to give up my AT&T phone # (and AT&T doesn't have GSM in place yet in my area). The others are cost and size.

RE: Palm smartphone
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/20/2002 4:00:34 PM #
BT now offer Treo 180 for £199 and £20pm contract

m525 please

sandbuck @ 6/12/2002 9:02:14 AM #
16+ MB
Hi-res
Bright, EVENLY lit screen
75+ Mhz
Better speaker (it will never happen)
On board BlueTooth

As far as phone capabilities go, I would rather have a really cool PDA that talks to a really cool BT-enabled phone. The current crop of hybrids never look, feel, wear, or function as well as dedicated phones/pdas. I would proably think diferently if I used my phone more.

RE: m525 please
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/12/2002 9:29:09 AM #
"I would rather have a really cool PDA that talks to a really cool BT-enabled phone"

I think that with as many hybrid PDA/Phone combos that we will be seeing in the very near future that the need for BT enabled phones is diminishing. They will certainly be available, but the need to use them as your wireless link from your pda will be secondary.

RE: m525 please
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/12/2002 10:11:22 AM #
"I think that with as many hybrid PDA/Phone combos that we will be seeing in the very near future that the need for BT enabled phones is diminishing."

I think maybe I disagree with both premises. As far into the future as my crystal ball goes, the PDA/Cell phone will always be a compromise. No matter how the manufacturer does it, you get either a PDA with a really small screen, or a really big cell phone. What extra functionality do you get out of merging them?
1) You carry only one device. I guess for people who really have a PDA and a cell phone hanging on their belt all the time, that's an advantage. But how many people is that?
2) You can, um, "surf the internet" wirelessly. Yeah, and pigs can fly. Sure, it's technically possible, but it's going to be incredibly painful - compared to a laptop - for a long time yet. And how many people need constant web access enough to be willing to suffer with this? This last comment
seems to apply equally well to the Bluetooth PDA-cell phone link issue: whether physically linked or linked by Bluetooth, the ability to surf the internet through your PDA and cell phone is just not something a ton of ordinary people are demanding. The hassle factor is just way too high.

So how are those Treos selling these days, anyway?

RE: m525 please
Ed @ 6/12/2002 10:16:41 AM #
I think there will be a market for both. Not everyone wants an all-in-one solution. Some people prefer the flexibility of being able to pick the best handheld and the best mobile phone. On the other hand, some people like the convenience of having the two melded together. With the range of Palm OS licensees, I believe there will be handhelds available to satisfy both groups.

---
News Editor
RE: m525 please
Altema @ 6/12/2002 11:15:41 AM #
"16+ MB"
I think I'd prefer 32Mb, I've run out of RAM a couple of times on my 16 Mb device.

"Hi-res"
Yep!

"Bright, EVENLY lit screen"
Ahh, you noticed the angular shadow in the light distribution lens huh? Me too. A side effect of the light relocation and the lens change. Not really noticible when the screen is directly in front of you, but the M515 shares this artifact with other color devices from Sony.

"75+ Mhz"
Definetly

"Better speaker (it will never happen)"
I hope so. You can't go through life knowing there are several multimedia applications which run on your devices, and stick with a peizo buzzer. I'm tempted to open up my M515 and wire a headphone jack, especially since the Kinoma Player makes full movie playback with decent quality and FF RW functions. TealMovie still does sound better because they compensate for the poor speaker. If I wanted to live with limited frequency response for the rest of my life, I'd get a set of Bose.

"On board BlueTooth"
Good feature, but they may make it optional.

RE: m525 please
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/12/2002 12:04:21 PM #
I'm glad someone else questions the single driver theory of Bose speakers.
RE: m525 please
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/12/2002 12:51:29 PM #

One of the above posters focuses on PDA wireless access (be it through a smartphone, or BT) only in terms of surfing the internet. I don't think the advantage of a wireless PDA is in the "wireless web". I think the advantages lie in access to corporate data and email. Wireless enabled applications can then synchronize at certain intervals, or access data in real time. So I agree that the "wireless web" on a PDA or phone or wireless enabled toster are all of little value, I think access to enterprise level information on any of these devices is worthwhile.
RE: m525 please
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/12/2002 3:10:36 PM #
Hybrid devices have another shortcoming not mentioned above: Battery life.

Most pda/phones I've seen have very little talk time (ie 2 hrs). This means after you talk your phone to death you can't even see what you next appointment is because there's no juice.

Don't forgot you won't be able to talk on the phone and use the pda to do something else either without a headset.

Until hybrid devices get better battery life (PDA's and phones seperately need more life) I don't see standalone devices going anywhere.

RE: m525 please
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/12/2002 3:53:27 PM #
"You can, um, "surf the internet" wirelessly. Yeah, and pigs can fly. Sure, it's technically possible, but it's going to be incredibly painful - compared to a laptop - for a long time yet. And how many people need constant web access enough to be willing to suffer with this?"

You obviously have never done this, because web surfing on the go is awesome...I use Blazer ALL THE TIME with no problems. Please don't post on what you don't know anything about (and if you do know about it, then don't lie, because surfing the internet is quite painless on my combo unit, and pigs still don't fly).

RE: m525 please
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/12/2002 6:31:16 PM #
Depending on things like geographic area, which carrier, maybe what device, the "pigs can fly" poster's account may be true--for his experience. Don't be so quick to say it's a breeze because it works for you now.
You mean pigs CAN fly?!!! Who knew???
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/12/2002 9:44:00 PM #
"You obviously have never done this, because web surfing on the go is awesome...I use Blazer ALL THE TIME with no problems. Please don't post on what you don't know anything about (and if you do know about it, then don't lie, because surfing the internet is quite painless on my combo unit, and pigs still don't fly)."

Okay, but keep in mind that your pain threshhold may be a LOT higher than the average Joe. I still think very, very few people will want to do this until it gets a lot easier. And while I don't "surf on the go," that's precisely because - in my experience - it is expensive, slow and not too useful. Painful.

To the poster who mentioned access to corporate data - I agree that this is what Bluetooth is really all about. OTOH, that's also still a very small niche market for techies, although I bet it will grow a lot faster than those wanting to surf the net on their PDA.

My real point is just that there are few people all that excited about "combo" devices of any kind just yet, so I hope the manufacturers don't dump a ton of R&D money into this area. Focus on regular folks - like me!!! :)

RE: BOSE speakers...
orb2069 @ 6/12/2002 10:02:47 PM #
A friend's joke:

No highs? No lows? Sound blows?
Must be BOSE.

I /am/ the eggman.

RE: m525 please
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/14/2002 11:59:59 AM #
"I guess for people who really have a PDA and a cell phone hanging on their belt all the time, that's an advantage. But how many people is that?"


ME!! LOL I GOTTA get me one of those Bat Utility Belts!

RE: m525 please
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/18/2002 4:23:20 PM #
Yeah, no s**t,
I have a 515, and the screen really sucks compared to sony. Why the hell can't palm figure it out? Ram is so small these days, they could easily put in 32 or higher. What's the deal with the conversion of movies to the palm, and why do they jump up 5x in size with the stock software of the 515? Why don't they make the graffiti area virtual like on the new sony pegNR70v, or whatever it's called, what a stupid name / model #. Yeah, I want bluetooth. And I want a bluetooth phone, and I want them to connect. I don't want a huge, crappy pda phone like the treo.
Mark.

What about a 700 series

I.M. Anonymous @ 6/12/2002 9:21:27 AM #
I am waiting patiently for a new COLOR pda w/wireless capabilities for instant on e-mail. 16MB, 200 MHZ processer and a MP3 player. Who will be first, Palm to add color and MP3 or Sony to add wireless e-mail.
RE: What about a 700 series
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/12/2002 9:53:08 AM #
Wait no more...

http://makeashorterlink.com/?D2CC14CE

MPEG,1/4 VGA color screen, Digital camera included, GSM/GPRS phone, fast processor, probably 32-64Mb memory, and more.


RE: What about a 700 series
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/12/2002 10:12:57 AM #
Can it run the $400 in Palm apps I've already bought? Does it have a word processor and spreadsheet at all?

Wireless email may be the killer app but the meager sales of the Blackberry have shown that a handheld needs to do more than that. While the P800's built-in camera is fun, it doesn't help me get my job done.

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