Palm Handheld Devices
Palm brought the PDA to the mainstream. But with so much diversity in handhelds can they stay on top?
You've got to hand it to Palm - their family of PDA devices is without a doubt the undisputed leader of the PDA market. They were the first popular electronic personal organizer to give us all the pieces that defined the PDA. The Date Book, Day Planner, Address Book, Notepad and even mail all came together in one ergonomic and intuitive device called the Palm Pilot all those years ago. This device in its day was sophisticated, practical and simple to use, which has been the formula used by Palm and the Palm OS ever since.
Palm PDAs offer sophisticated features and even wireless communications in a package that is widely known and distributed around the world at virtually any electronics retailer. The Palm has had a dedicated following for many years. Consequently there are more websites, freeware, applets and devices available that are dedicated to Palm and for Palm users than any other PDA.
The Palm OS includes HotSync and the ability to synchronize data from the PDA itself to your desktop PC. The powerful sync features can send/receive email through your Outlook client, synchronize offline files and even sync with third-party applications through widely distributed custom add-ins. The Palm's ease of use and array of powerful features and ocean deep content make it a no-brainer choice for anyone exploring their options with a handheld device.
There is a wide assortment of Palm devices that have built on the momentum in this market space to effortlessly cross into several areas of specialization.
- LifeDrive - A disc drive with 4GB of storage, rich 65K color 320x480 display and several media player options for video and MP3, even a built-in camera. This Palm is aimed squarely at a younger audience with a flair for media. Wi-fi/Bluetooth support is cool but not enough to compete with mobile telephony devices out there.
- Tungsten - These were aimed at business applications. The Tungsten W has been replaced by Treo as the wireless bad-boy of the Palm line. The Tungsten line has been relegated to the budget models. Still, the T5 offers Wi-Fi 160MB of fault-tolerant flash storage for a total of 256M, and the same rich display as the LifeDrive. The T5 is a budget model that should garner some serious consideration for someone not looking for the latest and greatest.
- Zire - The Zire line is the throwback. These are no more than earlier Palm lines repackaged with a few extras. The Zire 72 is the nicest of the lot with a 1.2 megapixel camera and a 16-bit color 320x320 screen. 32M of storage means it's not exactly the media playback device it pretends to be, but at $250 retail it's possibly the best value in a PDA.
- Treo Smartphones. Now we're seeing what the Palm can do these days. This is Palm's full-blown smart phone PDA. Pick up a local GSM subscriber service and this PDA becomes a phone with a full thumb keyboard. Hook up to a mobile internet service and you can surf the web, send and receive emails.
The Treo Smartphone is the flagship product by Palm. It's the mobile device that elevates the Palm line as the organizer that can do a lot more. But it's not the wireless communication device the Blackberry is and even the LifeDrive lacks the depth as a multimedia playback device that Pocket PCs have reached.
Still, if you're looking for a PDA that gives great value and universal support from anywhere in the world, and wireless communications are an extra, you need should think about getting your hands on a Palm.