The dying palmtop market was going down the lane of obsoletism. We haven’t heard of those little devices in a long time. But we might be hearing from the long-forgotten palmtops soon enough.
The palmtop computers got a little more powerful in the last week. The number 2 company in the growing palm-compatible handheld market, Handspring announced a new model of palmtops. They are a combination of a sleek, metallic style with Visor line’s trademark expandability.
The new model, named Visor Edge followed last week’s announcement by number 1 company, Palm. The Palm m105 was announced for the low end of the market at just $199. The Visor Edge, on the other hand, costs $399.
But Palm is not sitting quietly. They have already planned to bracket Handspring’s announcement later this spring. They will release a new model called Palm V. The designers said that it will have a colour screen, a Secure Digital postage-stamp sized expansion slot and a thin, sleek design. The dying palmtop market has become quite noisy recently.
An analyst with Mobile Insights, Tim Scannell said that these are not the next-gen palmtops. He said, “It’s not a revolution. It’s more of an evolution of the same platform.”
At Handspring’s product launch, they showed off the Visor Edge’s sleek looks. It is less than half an inch thick. It comes in three metallic colours. It boasts a 33 megahertz chip, which is faster than the Palm V. Scannell said that Visor Edge will be appealing to handheld buyers who are looking for aesthetics.
