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Strategies & Market Trends : The New Economy and its Winners -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bill Harmond who wrote (26758)	1/5/2006 11:29:53 AM
From: Rarebird	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 57684

There is no question in my mind that the future of Palm and the overall future of Palm OS lies in Phone/PDA devices such as the Treo line. The question is whether Palm can offer the best covergent device at the best price point? I think not. To be sure, it really depends on what you are primarily looking for when you buy one of these convergent devices. My experience is that Palm only excells when it comes to its OS and its traditional PIM applications. Indeed, the Palm OS is very intuitive and simple to operate; it destroys Windows Mobile in that respect. When I had an HP Ipaq 4155, I was constantly clicking around to get where I wanted to go. The Contacts and Calendar programs were just awful on Windows Mobile. What I did like was the internal Wifi and Bluetooth. The HP Ipaq 4155 had some strong Wifi signal. But Pocket Internet Explorer was a horrendous browser that couldn't even format many web pages properly. I needed to buy PIE plus to get that accomplished. Sure, the Net Front Browser was a lot better than PIE. But that's extra $$$. WebPro on the Zire 72 and Blazer on the E2, T5 and TX is a lot better than the Pocket Internet Explorer Browser on Windows Mobile. But that's not saying all that much. I find Opera Mini on my SE K750i and SE K700i to be much faster and a lot more stable than either Blazer or WebPro. Moreover, I can surf with one hand and get all the information I need in regard to the financial markets and make trades while I'm in traffic. Why do I need to pay $45 a month for Verizon's rip off Broadband service on the Treo 700W when I can wait 2-3 seconds to access any web site using my SE K750i phone on T-Mobile for $5.99 a month using the free Operamini Browser? Multimedia wise, I find my SE K750i to be much better than the Zire 72, TE2, T5 or TX when it comes to music and video. The Pocket Tunes player included in the TX is decent and considerably better than the mobile Realplayer on the E2, and T5. But it still can't hold a candle to the Sony Ericsson Music Player. However, I cannot create playlists on the SE music player-though it sounds great and I can use my MP3's and OGG Vorbis files as ringtones. In terms of camera, the 2.0 Megapixel camera on the SE K700i just destroys the camera on the Zire 72. That's like talking about the difference between a Filet Mignon and a Mcdonalds Hamburger. Furthermore, Palm doesn't make most of its components in house, which pushes up the price of its handhelds, which is not good for consumers. The big advantage Palm has is that Sony and Handera don't make handhelds anymore and Palm bought Handspring. Given Windows Mobile, there are not that many choices available here for consumers. I see SE and Nokia filling the gap here and Palm continuing to lose market share.