Re: [NTLK] PDA Market

From: Rick Ludwig (bensisko_at_mac.com)
Date: Tue Jun 01 2004 - 19:44:43 PDT


Correction: The rumors of Toshiba's exidous from the PDA market have
been greatly exageratted (as evidenced by the brand new PPC 2003se PDA
they JUST came out with...). Also, Handspring is not gone from the
market, just merged with palmOne (although you COULD say the Visor is
gone, but not it's not a big loss... [address flame mail to:...]). The
PDA market is not, by a long shot dead as we know it (Casio has been
gone for a long time...) just because Sony exits the US market (also,
they never said it was permanent). Given that NO PDA company (including
and especially Sony) has ever been good at marketing PDAs. I think that
the only TV commerical I've seen was for the HP Jornada and, of course,
our green friend (I am in no way saying that TV is the end-all be-all
of marketing, but it IS the best way to reach the largest part of the
US market). Though Sony will surly be a loss to the US PDA market, it
is not nessessarily the death of it (though I'll bet PalmSource is
really sweating right now...), especially since Sony will still be
making Clies for Japan and other markets. My bet is the only reason to
close Clies to the US market is NOT because of lagging sales, but they
have to get the funds for their electronic music folly somewhere
[again, address flame mail to:...)!

Seriously though, the sky isn't falling because it's a little foggy
out. Sony is still making PDAs, PalmSource has dozens of licensees, MS
has dozens of licensees, and that's not even including smart phones.
I'm not trying to make light of this because Sony has the ONLY
Palm-based PDA that I would actually buy, HOWEVER there are still
plenty of Pocket PCs out there (Toshiba, Dell, HP, ASUS, View
Sonic...), as well as Palms (palmOne, Symbol, Garmin, Alphasmart,
Tapwave...). So, take a deep breath and go buy that new Toshiba!

Also, to answer your other question: Yes, the Newton is incapable of
accepting appointments and schedules after 2010 (though, if I'm
remembering correctly, the Newton will still work if you can live
without a datebook).

-Rick

(NEC MobilePro 400, NEC MobilePro 800, Palm Pilot Pro, Palm III, Palm
IIIxe, Palm Vx, iPaq 3635, Toshiba e750 (won from McDonalds!), Newton
MessagePad 100, Newton MessagePad 110, Newton MessagePad UMP2100)

On Jun 1, 2004, at 12:47 PM, bdball-newt1_at_mailblocks.com wrote:

> Wow! Sony announced today that it is no longer making the clie forthe
> US market. As a long time pda users (see list at end), I am saddened to
> see what appears to be the beginning of the end of the PDA as we know
> it.

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