Sony's Palm PDA Coming in September

Sony's newly-appointed president Kunitake Ando revealed Monday that they will release a PDA running the Palm OS in September.

Update: According to c|net, the PDA that Sony will release this Fall will be color, use memory sticks, have the same wireless capabilities as the Palm VII, and be amazingly cheap at less than $200.

Sony licensed the OS last year but the date for the release hasn't been known until now. Recently, there had been some doubt about Sony's plans after they licensed the EPOC OS to use in their smart phones. However, any speculation that Sony was dropping the Palm OS appears to have been incorrect. Ando said the company plans to concentrate primarily on four core products -- the PlayStation, digital TV set-top boxes, the Vaio PC, and PDAs.

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Need for Sony?

Sandokan @ 5/15/2000 2:55:55 PM #
I'm not sure, based on this excerpt, if this is going to make a huge impact. I'm sure there will be people who will buy them strictly for the Sony name and/or the connectivity with their phones, but with all of us who use phones other than Sony, this will make no difference to us. I'm perfectly happy with my IIIc and only with there could be something done with the Technical Support SNAFU Palm is experiencing. Who knows, maybe they will offer some interesting add-on hardware for the PDA they plan on releasing.
RE: Need for Sony?
mikecane@wildmail.com @ 5/15/2000 4:49:47 PM #
There are many people who have yet to upgrade. That IIIc is not compelling enough. If Sony has a color unit with Memory Stick, it'll beat the IIIc. mc
RE: Need for Sony?
benson@cds-inc.com @ 5/15/2000 4:55:37 PM #
If they came out with a minidisc PDA, like the ones from the April Fools gag,
I'd buy one in a second. It would also be a great counter to the whole
MP3 player thing that the "Pocket PC" group makes so much noise about.

Less than $200?

Ed@PalmInfoCenter.com @ 5/16/2000 8:35:37 AM #
I don't like to editorialize in the news articles I post so I'll put my comments here. The $200 price quoted by c|net seems way too low, considering it is going to have the same features as two other Palm PDAs, both of which cost over $400. Has Palm been over charging us or is c|net mistaken?

If the price and features are correct, there is going to be a real shakeup in this industry.

RE: Less than $200?
mikecane@wildmail @ 5/16/2000 9:06:55 AM #
There are color screens (ie, IIIc) and then there are "color" screens (ie, Casio organizer of a few years ago which cost >$200). Let's see which kind of color -- if any -- is offered. (Let's also see how soon it is introed as a "For Sale in Japan [w/JapanOS] ONLY" product too!) mc
RE: Less than $200?
abel-negspam@incontrolsys.com @ 5/16/2000 11:44:36 AM #
Loss leader on the wireless subscription perhaps?
Pay $200 now, and $50 a month for the Rest of Your Life.
RE: Less than $200?
Sandokan @ 5/16/2000 12:26:51 PM #
I think the price reflects overconfident lowering costs of RAM. Both high end Palm Pilots feature 8 megs of RAM which is partly why the cost is higher. (This relates to the factory fires from several months ago) If Sony intends to use their Palm OS item with a considerable amount of memory allocated, there is no way they can justify this price. Unless, like theabove post, the ENTIRE INDUSTRY has been fleecing us.
RE: Less than $200?
MPKirby @ 5/16/2000 1:58:15 PM #
I think the $200 figure closer than you think, perhaps right on target. The wireless PDA market is going to mimic the cell phone market-- how many people do you know actually pay the $600 prices for digital cell phones?

You'll see these being sold by Verizon, Sprint, et al for $200 or less by October, with activation and a 12-24 month service agreement.

I'll eat this post if you don't. Promise.

-kirb

RE: Less than $200?
Sandokan @ 5/16/2000 2:52:51 PM #
Ha ha! Nah, you may have something there. I didn't think of the multi-year contract anchor. Sony products are nototious for being overpriced as well, so maybe we'll a little wager on the side!
RE: Less than $200?
Maven @ 5/16/2000 7:20:53 PM #
Just look at the Color Gameboy - only $69 most places. (Now, I know the Gameboy screen stinks.) I think they could hit $200. The savings is in mass quantities. I think the guy above is also right - you can run on very slim margins if you're getting a re-occuring fee. If anyone can do it- it's Sony. And I think they will, to compete with the Gameboy Advance due out this Christmas (which uses an ARM processor by the way. Does that sound familiar? Wonder if Sony's product will be the first Palm on the new processor? Just speculation)
RE: Less than $200? -- May be possible
I.M. Anonymous @ 5/16/2000 8:46:25 PM #
Palm has already stated that they envision a future where their PDAs are sold around $100 each. This is plausible if the market can be expanded to everyone, instead of just the business executive or the rich student, additionally with advances in design, manufacturing and materials technologies.

$200? Nah.

Neil Shapiro @ 5/16/2000 1:50:28 PM #
I have a feeling that the $200 pricepoint is a bogus figure. Sony is probably floating this balloon just for research to see how many want this when price is NOT an object.

How much should it use?

Eddie Willers @ 5/16/2000 2:53:36 PM #
I have heard much about this memory leak but didn't know what the specifics were. My system (IIIc) shows only 89k, I assume this is close to the norm, but I will monitor it more closely. Thanks for the heads up.
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