"In April 2001 the average price was down about 14 percent from the prior year to about 255 dollars and that trend has gone on for the last few months."
Stephen Baker is director of research at the market tracking firm NPD Intellect. Palm's recent price cuts have been followed by Handspring... which until July is offering a hundred dollars in trade=in value for owners of any other handheld... towards its top of the line Visor Edge...
"You can trade in any handheld you've got. So it could be an Apple Newton or a Palm Pilot from 1997."
Palm is now selling it's once pricey Palm VIIX with a built in wireless modem for just 99 dollars after a rebate if you agree to a one year contract for Palm.net. Some PocketPCs are coming down in price as well. While Baker says they may continue to fall... now is the right time to buy... .
"You know you can always wait on the technology products and wait for stuff to get cheaper and the fact is that, yeah, to some extent things always do get cheaper. But when there's a good deal available and the product meets your needs, you should go out and buy that at that point."
The flow of new products and price cuts on older models... .seems to be a non-stop cycle. Bloomberg Boot Camp, I'm Fred Fishkin.