The debut of the Tungsten devices is part of an effort by Palm to realign its product offerings with separate lines for consumers and corporate customers, or so-called “power users.” Earlier this month, Palm released its Zire line of PDAs (personal digital assistants), which start at US$99 and are designed for entry-level consumers.
The Tungsten T is slimmer and more compact than previous handhelds from Palm. Sized at 4 inches by 3 inches, it can be extended another inch to expose a hidden Graffiti pad for inputting data with a stylus pen. It is priced at US$499 and will be available immediately, said Anthony Armenta, a Palm product manager.
Both Tungsten devices feature Palm’s new five-way navigator, a dial on the face of each device that can be used to navigate the display with one hand. Both also sport 320-by-320 pixel, 16-bit color displays, 16MB of RAM and an SD (Secure Digital) drive.
The devices also are Palm’s first to include built-in support for Bluetooth. When they use the PDAs in conjunction with a Bluetooth mobile phone, users can browse the Web, send and receive e-mail and dial a phone number directly from the address book.
The Tungsten T is the first device from the company to make use of the latest version of the Palm operating system, Palm OS 5, and use the ARM Ltd. chip architecture now supported by Palm OS 5. It runs Texas Instruments Inc.’s OMAP (Open Multimedia Applications Platform) 1510 chip, a 144MHz processor, which promises to offer better audio and video support, the company said.
The Santa Clara, California, company is using the previous version of the operating system and the long-used DragonBall 33MHz microprocessor for the Tungsten W.
“The focus in development was really on getting wireless connectivity and the application suite right with the Tungsten W,” said Armenta, defending the company’s decision not to use Palm OS 5 and the ARM chip architecture for the voice-and-data PDA. He noted that nearly 20 percent of all Palm OS applications still don’t support the new operating system.
“(Palm OS 4.1) gives you the best compatibility with applications,” he said.
The Tungsten line may face some stiff competition from the growing number of handheld makers that will be offering new models for the holiday shopping season, said Todd Kort, principal analyst with research company Gartner Inc.
Handspring Inc. Monday slashed $100 off the price of its Treo Communicator 180, a phone-PDA combination device with a black-and-white display, bringing the price to $249. Dell Computer Corp. and ViewSonic Corp. each have promised to release Pocket PC-based handhelds next month priced as low as $249.
“With a $500 price point, I think (Tungsten) is in trouble,” Kort said. “Dell is going to reset the market expectations for PDA pricing.
“I think the Tungsten product was conceived during a time when Dell’s entry was not anticipated,” he said.