Digital Boomerang Singapore 

Palm’s new m125 has a price tag that may scare off entry-level users.

Just last Friday, Palm launched the new m125 claiming that it is ideal for first-time buyers. I haven’t received the review unit yet (though it’s coming my way really soon) so I can’t give you all the nuts and bolts on this handheld. But I can tell you a few things about this handheld to help decide whether or not to buy it.

As an entry-level handheld, it is expensive. Priced at S$449, it’s out of the S$200 - S$350 price bracket of most beginner handhelds. Palm claims that the new dual expansion architecture, which consists of an expansion slot for Secure Digital or MultiMediaCards and the Palm universal connector, justifies the higher price tag.

I think not.

When I spoke to Frankie Liow, Marketing Manager, South Asia, Palm, Inc., he made it very clear to me that the dual expansion architecture is and will be the expansion foundation for all future Palm devices. This necessarily means that the Palm m100 and m105 will die a slow death. They are still available in the market but without the universal connector, you won’t be able to enjoy all the universal connector-based add-ons developed by third parties.

And Palm takes it’s developer community very seriously and relies a great deal on them to conjure up add-on modules that will help to proliferate Palm OS devices.

When taken in context, the Palm m125 is or will be the company’s entry-level offering when the m100 and m105 vapourise. If so, the S$449 price tag is simply too high for first time buyers.

Moreover, the price is just too close to the m500. Though the m500 was launched at S$729, prices have been falling steadily due to the growing unpopularity of monochrome PDAs. If you look hard enough, you can get a m500 for slightly over S$550.

Given that the m500 is slimmer, lighter and so much more sleek, it doesn’t take a genius to make the right choice. Also unlike the m500, the m125 doesn’t come with an upgradable flash ROM. So buying one today could mean being caught in an OS time warp. You will be at Version 4.0 for eternity.

It’s anyone’s guess why Palm chose this particular pricing strategy. It could simply be a business decision to keep revenue rolling in and margins healthy. If consumers bite, “hooray” for Palm. If not, well it wouldn’t be too much of a surprise especially when you take a look at the other offerings in the market.

Handspring has just launched the Visor Neo for S$389. In contrast to Palm, Handspring has spelt out that the Neo does replace its previous entry-level model the Visor Deluxe. Like the m125, it comes with 8MB of memory and Handspring’s very own Springboard expansion slot. The only drawback is the older Palm OS of 3.5.2.

Unfortunately, nothing is perfect.

Just to clarify, I am not saying that the Palm m125 is not a good handheld. I have yet to put it to the test. It’s just too expensive to be called an entry-level handheld (even if it comes with free software!). It’s clear Palm intends for the m125 to eventually replace the m100 and m105, but is at the same time reluctant to give it a comparable price tag.

For those saddled with the older M series, hang on to them for a bit longer. I hear Palm will be rolling out some upgrade plans. No details have been confirmed but Mr. Frankie Liow alluded to some type of upgrade plan. Those looking for a new handheld may be better off just waiting for prices to fall. Gravity weighs heavily on these small devices.

- First published on IT AsiaOne, This is IT

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