The Clie was the best PDA out there - but the upper end were a bit too feature rich and expensive.

Why don't Sony and Apple just team up to make a line of cel phones and PDAs? They could finally do the fabled iPhone, then a step up similar to a Blackberry, then reintroduce the Newton.

What? Why are you laughing?

Kinda lends creedence to Apple's position regarding (not) entering the PDA market.

PDAs are slowly dying. PDA/cellphone is one area of convergence that makes sense. Cellphone/music player makes less sense (at least to me).

Quote

Intruder wrote:
Cellphone/music player makes less sense (at least to me).

Yeah, well I thought "camera/cell phone" was a dumb idea too, and look how popular THAT became.

I still don't know WHY, but there you have it.

Is this the beginning of the end for Palm based PDAs? It seems like WindowsCE has pretty much eclipsed Palm unless they do something very clever very soon.

This is from a Tungsten/T owner.

I just haven't seen significant leading edge advances with Palm in a while. The T5 is nice, but WindowsCE has used that full screen for a long time. I think smartphones and iPods are taking the functionality and what they can't/aren't, the WindowsCE machines are doing a better job than Palm.

Really sad, I love Palm and would have liked to seen it remain dominant.

I have had a Palm for a long time and I have a cell phone, for me I just don't understand why that is where the market is going. The combo phones my friends have either seem way too big for a cell phone or way to small for a pda. The seamless marriage is not there.

I am a non-believer in PDA only devices and have not owned one. To me, PDA functions are only good to have and thus should be incorporated into cellphones, iPod and other convergence devices.

We spend most of our times reading(incl surfing), chatting(incl emailing and meeting), listening to music, watching(TV, movies), moving around and sleeping. Any devices that improve productivity of such activity are always wanted.

While Sony's departure seemed obvious and resonable, it is sad as they seemd to be one of the few innovators in the Palm arena. However, not the ONLY innovator!

Tapwave's Zodiac is by many accounts the most capable and highest quality Palm device to come along in quite some time. I replaced my Sony UX50 which I dearly loved except that it had too much bezel (i.e. the screen was too small) with a Zodiac 2 and have been in love ever since!

Sadly the Tapwave people have not marketed their product (IMHO) correctly or as well as it deserves, it still proves that there is a market for seperate data and communication devices (as I use my Zodiac with a Motorola V3 Razor for web surfing, email and such), plus the Zodiac can do things that a convergant device such as a Palmone Treo 650 cannot (real world word processing and watching full wide screen movies to name a couple).

Truly Microsoft is squeezing out Palm in part due to better marketing, and to a degree better innovation, but everyone (& I mean EVERYONE) that sees my Zodiac and what it is capable of (both as a wireless bluetooth deivce teathered to my Razr and on its own) are not only amazed but often swayed to purchase one.

Plus as Apple receives more visiblility and respect for its elegant, secure, and uncomplicated OS, the Palm platform will continue to attract attention for the very same reasons.

I agree that Windows PPC has taken the lead, but the game is FAR from over yet...

While Sony's departure seemed obvious and resonable, it is sad as they seemd to be one of the few innovators in the Palm arena. However, not the ONLY innovator!

Tapwave's Zodiac is by many accounts the most capable and highest quality Palm device to come along in quite some time. I replaced my Sony UX50 which I dearly loved except that it had too much bezel (i.e. the screen was too small) with a Zodiac 2 and have been in love ever since!

Sadly the Tapwave people have not marketed their product (IMHO) correctly or as well as it deserves, it still proves that there is a market for seperate data and communication devices (as I use my Zodiac with a Motorola V3 Razor for web surfing, email and such), plus the Zodiac can do things that a convergant device such as a Palmone Treo 650 cannot (real world word processing and watching full wide screen movies to name a couple).

Truly Microsoft is squeezing out Palm in part due to better marketing, and to a degree better innovation, but everyone (& I mean EVERYONE) that sees my Zodiac and what it is capable of (both as a wireless bluetooth deivce teathered to my Razr and on its own) are not only amazed but often swayed to purchase one.

Plus as Apple receives more visiblility and respect for its elegant, secure, and uncomplicated OS, the Palm platform will continue to attract attention for the very same reasons (at least for those wise enough to see the advantages of stability and elegant simplicity over a bloated and often unstable OS such as that of the PPC.

I agree that Windows PPC has taken the lead on a number of levels, but the game is FAR from over...

Quote

Ahnyer Keester wrote:
Is this the beginning of the end for Palm based PDAs? It seems like WindowsCE has pretty much eclipsed Palm...

The market share numbers quoted in the article don't seem to back up this statement. PalmOne's market share rose from 47.8% in '03 to 64.1% in '04. The combined PalmOne and Sony market share has been pretty constant at just under 75%. And this doesn't include hot sellers like the PalmOS based Treo. The entire PDA market may be shrinking, but the PalmOS seems to be maintaining its share of that market.

While Sony's departure seemed obvious and resonable, it is sad as they seemd to be one of the few innovators in the Palm arena. However, not the ONLY innovator!

Tapwave's Zodiac is by many accounts the most capable and highest quality Palm device to come along in quite some time. I replaced my Sony UX50 which I dearly loved except that it had too much bezel (i.e. the screen was too small) with a Zodiac 2 and have been in love ever since!

Sadly the Tapwave people have not marketed their product (IMHO) correctly or as well as it deserves, it still proves that there is a market for seperate data and communication devices (as I use my Zodiac with a Motorola V3 Razor for web surfing, email and such), plus the Zodiac can do things that a convergant device such as a Palmone Treo 650 cannot (real world word processing and watching full wide screen movies to name a couple).

Truly Microsoft is squeezing out Palm in part due to better marketing, and to a degree better innovation, but everyone (& I mean EVERYONE) that sees my Zodiac and what it is capable of (both as a wireless bluetooth deivce teathered to my Razr and on its own) are not only amazed but often swayed to purchase one.

Plus as Apple receives more visiblility and respect for its elegant, secure, and uncomplicated OS, the Palm platform will continue to attract attention for the very same reasons (at least for those wise enough to see the advantages of stability and elegant simplicity over a bloated and often unstable OS such as that of the PPC.

I agree that Windows PPC has taken the lead on a number of levels, but the game is FAR from over...

It's too bad Sony is leaving the PDA field, because I have a feeling that rumours of the PDA's death are premature. Some of us want our equipment to just do what they are supposed to do. My cell phone has a PDA built in, and I never use it. It is impossible to synch with my computer, there is no QWERTY keyboard made for it, and using telephone buttons to write text is an exercise in frustration.

I want my phone to be a phone. Period. I want my PDA to be just that. My camera is a camera; I'm not going to be phoning anyone with it. When the various tasks are combined, none of them are done well. I suspect we will see Sony back into this market before long.

Mac idiots.