I was just reading a PC World article and it got me thinking. While Palm wasn't the first company to enter the palmtop computer market, they were the company that we can credit with moving it to a mainstream market. It was the Palm Pilot that hit a price point and function set that led to many people buying one, and the brand name becoming associated with the whole market. Even to this day, I have people refer to my Pocket PC Phone Edition as a "Palm Pilot". So where is Palm going from here.
Our interest is in the pdaPhone end of Palm. Up until this point, Palm's efforts in this space have been very data centric. The first device that they've made which was capable of phone calls is the Tungsten W, a nice device, but you can't make a call without the earbud. I believe that Palm's decision to by Handspring speaks highly of the pdaPhone market. Why would Palm buy Handspring, if they didn't believe that the pdaPhone market is important. I believe the Treo 600 is going to be a homerun when it starts shipping, and Palm will be getting the benefit of that. Palm is essentially getting a new division focused on the pdaPhone marketplace.
The merger will bring to two, the number of serious Palm based contenders - Sony and their Clie being the other. Sony has thus far steered clear of the pdaPhone market. With the combined Palm-Handspring company competing toe to toe with Sony, and with PalmSource being spun off, perhaps Sony will feel a need to enter the pdaPhone market?
What do you think?
Read the source article at
PCWorld.
It's only a matter of time before the technology advances to where you can cram everything into one device very easily. It just makes sense. The people that carry 2 devices still have good reasons, but all are reasons that can be solved in time. There will also be mobile phones that don't have PDAs, but I think its possible that a day will come with the reverse is no longer true.... 
Login
Panel
