Everyone's favourite hand-held computer company Palm Computing last week launched its new top-end model Palm m515 to replace the m505. But it didn't get a mention in this column. I didn't think it deserved it. Why? Let's take a look at this new Palm - it's got a better, brighter screen, which helps address the main grouse about the m505; that it was too dim. And at long last, they've boosted the Ram to 16 megabytes, or 8MB more than its predecessor. Those are basically the two differences between the m505 and m515 but they were enough to get people excited about the company again. Palm's stock went up 5.7 per cent that day. It isn't slimmer or smaller, it doesn't sport a faster processor. It is the m505 with a better face and more Ram. Now if you are a Palm fan, did you ask: 'I waited a year for this?' You've got to wonder when analysts start describing two tiny feature upgrades as 'incremental improvements' a year between products. That was what JP Morgan analyst Paul Coster told News.com. If the display on the m515 was the best in the market, maybe it could be described as an incremental improvement. But the fact is that the m515's screen is only better than the m505. It is not better than Handspring's colour unit the Visor Prism, and it is inferior to the screens on Sony's colour Clie series such as the Clie PEG-N760C/G and the T615C/G, as well as colour hand-helds from various vendors, including Compaq Computer, Hewlett-Packard and Casio, running Microsoft Pocket PC 2002. I had this discussion with a friend who is a hardcore geek and Palm fan and the owner of several Palm devices including the original Palm Pilot made by US Robotics. 'At least they're trying. They've got most of the features that are missing from the Treo!' he said. I had to concede that point, I've wasted far too much space criticising the Treo. But even he had to admit Palm's lost the plot. 'Pitiful really, isn't it? I'm feeling sorry for them. I remember feeling that way about Netscape four or five years ago. Sooner or later, they're going to be a takeover target, simply for the software,' he said. 'If they do spin off the software business, they'll end up as relevant as Netscape, LapLink, DR-Dos, OS/2, NexGen, Cyrix, Compuserve.' It is becoming all too obvious as the competition in the hand-held arena heats up that the best Palm hand-held is not made by Palm. On Monday, Sony released two new Clies that knocked the wind out of me. Both devices - the Clie PEG-NR70V and PEG-NR70 - run on the Palm operating system, flip open to reveal a 320-pixel-by-480-pixel colour screen and an integrated keyboard. They also come with an integrated digital audio player, 16MB of Ram and a 66 megahertz Motorola Dragonball Super VZ processor. The difference between the two is that the NR70V has an integrated digital camera built into the hinge. Users can input data using either the touch screen or built-in keyboard. The displays can be swivelled 180 degrees and folded down to cover the keyboard so you are looking at just the screen. The only thing that is not going for the Clie is the Memory Stick slot, a standard feature on almost all Sony electronics products. While Sony is rallying up developers to build applications on the Memory Stick platform, applications and accessories for the SD slot are still more common. Clie users outside Japan do not have access to the range of Memory Stick accessories available in gadget-crazy Japan. Sony will release a Bluetooth Memory Stick card later this month. Palm has a lot of catching up to do if it wants to compete in the high-end of the hand-held market. It still hangs on to its fast-diminishing market share lead but competitors are close on its heels. Palm also faces increasing competition from mobile phone makers such as Nokia, Samsung and Sony-Ericsson which produce data phones that handle multimedia. Palm still dominates the low-end of the hand-held market by a big margin but that's a market none of the big-name vendors are interested in. The Palm m515 costs HK$3,120 and a Bluetooth SD card is now available from Palm at HK$1,020. Got a gadget idea? Drop Carolyn a line at carolyn@scmp.com
