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New Dell PDA to set new mark in handheld world
By Renay San Miguel
(CNN) -- Before Monday, November 18, a handheld computer using Microsoft's Pocket PC software would cost you a lot of pocket change. But on that date, Dell Computer stages its first assault ever on a market other than desktop/laptop computers, servers or storage devices. Dell will introduce its own company-manufactured-and-branded personal digital assistant -- PDA -- called the Axim X5. It will use the Pocket PC operating system. And it will be priced much cheaper than Hewlett-Packard's iPaq Pocket PC handheld, which can cost anywhere from $500-$700, although discounted models can be found on the Web. You guessed it: It's the next round of counter-punching in a handheld computer war, with the real spoils going to consumers, because even more price cuts may be coming soon. In fact, if film director Sergio Leone were staging this spaghetti western, you can imagine a squinty-eyed Dell founder and CEO Michael Dell starring in "A Fistful of Handhelds." And tech industry observers say other handheld companies like Palm, Handspring, H-P and Sony could be the ones quaking in their boots. "They [Dell] don't go after anything where there's not a profit pool," said Carl Howe, technology analyst for Blackfriars Communications. "They intend to make money off of it." And Dell will basically do that by undercutting H-P and other who sell more expensive PDAs. The entry-level Axim's price? $249. There will also be a $349 model. And Dell is kicking in a $50 rebate on both models.
"Dell will break a new price point for pocket PCs [with the Axim]," Howe told "Hotwired." "So while the Dell introduction will certainly have some effect on commoditizing the pocket PC business, it doesn't seem like it will make a big dent in Palm for quite a while, simply because of the price difference." That's because as I've told you before here in "Hotwired," Palm's new entry-level Zire handheld checks in at $99. Yet another reason for consumers to applaud -- that is, if they're not holding a PDA at the time. Even the higher-priced Palms are a little cheaper than most PDAs. Palm Computing has 70 percent of the handheld market, with Microsoft's Pocket PC grabbing up 20 percent. But analysts like Howe say Palm's momentum has stalled, while Pocket PC's is growing. That may be because a Pocket PC operating system, unlike Palm's OS, is a lot like using a Windows desktop computer on a handheld. There are the same toolbars and icons, and Microsoft has also made sure Pocket PC supports digital media. Dell's Axim will feature a 65,000-color screen, wireless and Bluetooth capabilities if you stick a CompactFlash Type II Card into the Axim's expansion slot, and you also get a backup battery that you can charge up in the Axim's cradle ... while the Axim itself is charging. From a style standpoint, there aren't a whole lot of aesthetic differences between the Axim and a high-end Palm or a H-P iPaq. They are about the same size and weight. The big difference, and the big gamble on Dell's part, is the price. Will H-P and other PDA makers cut their prices to match Dell's? And how fast will consumers reach out to get a PDA that's cheaper than past models? As with so many other technology issues, the fate of handheld computers is in the hands of consumers.
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