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Lower Cost PDAs Arriving

Techstination feature for Wednesday, October 16, 2002

A new wave of cheaper PDAs. Bloomberg Boot Camp, a report on today's technology. More computing power in your pocket for less money. Palm has introduced its sub one hundred dollar handheld under the sub-brand Zire. And now... a new generation of lower priced Pocket PCs is coming. Viewsonic is introducing a 299 dollar model... with Dell and Hewlett Packard expected to follow. Viewsonic senior product manager David Feldman... ...

"We target this device toward those consumers that are already using a Palm device or are looking at a Palm device. It's a device that has more functionality in its operating system than that of Palm. It's a device that has more expansion capabilities and memory size than that of a similar priced Palm device. So we are going after those customers that want a Palm like device... with more enhanced features."

The device is a first for Viewsonic... best known for making monitors and LCD screens. That, says, Feldman, is an advantage...

"In order to use this type of device you need to interact with the screen. You need to have a bright and brilliant screen in order to see the information that's displayed on the screen. So we feel, Viewsonic feels, as the display technology leader that it's only a natural fit that Viewsonic is a leader in this market."

But the competition will be heating up... .and there reportedly could be PocketPCs arriving for under two hundred dollars. That isn't good news for makers of Palm OS devices. It is good news for buyers. Bloomberg Boot Camp, I'm Fred Fishkin.