I don't think this is off-topic. The charter explicitly lists
"questions and concerns about future technologies or the future of the
Palm OS platform or of Palm, Inc.", so I'll take a shot.
>Over a year ago, I said that Palm would have to bend to market demands
>for Color, sound and other features offered by the PocketPC. Many of
>the palm supporters and some employees of Palm said I was all wet.
Great.
>Well, I have just read an article in the news that says that the B/W
>models are falling by the wasteside in favor of the color devices.
Thanks for the link to this informative article. Personally, I still
prefer to trade battery life and cost for color. In addition, I have
yet to meet anyone who purchased a color Palm or expressed sharp
interest in color.
>I also just returned from a 30 day trip to Japan. What I found was that
>every child over the age of 12 had a cell phone with full color
>displays. The #1 way of accessing the internet in Japan is via these
>high tech Color Phones.
The primary market for PalmOS devices and software is not Japanese
children. I love my cell phone, and even use it to access the internet,
but I don't think a color phone would help me much, and I pray that
our network infrastructure never decays to the point that this becomes
my "#1 way of accessing the internet."
>If Palm does not improve their OS (more file oriented) and offer more
Why does the OS need to be more file oriented? I ask this in all
seriousness because you gloss over this assertion and I truly don't
understand how this would benefit users or developers. The DataManager
functions may be a little confusing to new developers, but once you
look at examples it's not a big deal. Do user's want to stick floppies
in their Palm. Is this another Japanese thing, because I only know
what I see on Iron Chef?
>Color and sound options, they will cease to exist in a couple of years.
>The user market is demanding Color, Sound, Wireless.
Palm can hardly give away their wireless unit, but maybe it's because
they don't have color and sound. Wireless is important, but until the
access cost comes down, I don't see this as a consumer priority.
You're right about color and sound. Consumers want more flash, but
recognize the trade-off. It costs memory, money, and processor cycles
to get all those colors on the screen. I'd rather preserve all three
and stick with a plain 2-bit display.
It's not going to be easy for Palm. Guessing what consumers want and
how much they are willing to pay is an ugly business, but I don't think
Palm has a head-in-the-sand approach. Their latest offerings are
pointed smack at the PocketPC crowd, but I'd like to see them continue
to own the low end market. An 8 MB Palm V at around $150 might get new
users hooked. Let them upgrade to color and sound when they're ready
to spend more money.
- Ed
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