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-- Any comments on the TRG clone with Compact Flash? (http://discussion.visorcentral.com/vcforum/showthread.php?threadid=451)

How do you think TRGs new clone will affect visor sales? Do we have a battle now for a expansion slot standard? Palm has the IIIx upgrade slot,Handspring offers the srpingboard and now TRG with a compact flash slot.

As soon as someone announces a CF slot Springboard, the expansion slot wars will diminish. WinCE has proven that CF is a non-starter beyond memory/modem/ethernet. Too small and no ability to exceed the CF slot form factor (other than the Casio camera).

I don't necessarly think there will be a battle, but it does make it hard on the accessory manufactures. They will have to decide which slot to support. Only the biggest companies will be able to support all of the upgrade slots.

Think about this though...
There is NO WAY to fit a springboard in a Palm IIIx...
There is NO WAY to fit a springboard in the Compactflash slot...

BUT

A springboard COULD be made which would accept either the IIIX cards and/or the Compactflash cards.

In this situation which PDA would you want to bet will still be upgradeable 2 years from now?

Just a thought...
Bill

[This message has been edited by SUPERvisor (edited 10-15-1999).]

HS, PALM and TRG guys should sit together on a common strategy to whipe WinCE off the ground.

TRG, they are quite low profile, has anybody ssen a picture?

TRG pricing? They said that they aim at the 'corporate market'! I guess pricing will not be rock bottom. My guess: it's around or above the Visor figure.

They probably count on the HS shipping problems and sell a bit higher (just in case that they can ship right away).

I guess we see some fierce price wars coming up. This puts HS a bit in a dissadvantage since they sell only direct (yet). If they lower prices before x'mas they will most likely get some angry comments from early buyers.

Palm has a better position, they sell high price direct online - and dump volume to online retailers at lower prices. (Do online retailers really make money?)

Prices WILL drop as more competition arrives, however I would like to see HAndspring offer early buyers a rebate/discount of some sort on springboards... that would be great!

Late breaking news.....

TRGPro will be US$329 with 8Mb and look like the Palm III series, available at the end of the year. Read all here...:
http://www.zdnet.com/pcweek/stories...1017687,00.html

I'm not sure, but is the total ram 8mb + 2mb of flash (for a total of 10) or is it 8mb total (6mb reg + 2mb flash)?

The price point ain't bad and is a great option for those who are afraid of not being able to upgrade to new versions of the OS.

the 2mb flash is for the OS; kinda like my palm 3 has 2mb flash 2mb ram; but is considered a 2mb machine not a 4mb one.

so as a rule assume all onboard flash to be sucked up by the operating system.

only difference is HAndspring chose to use burned rom instead of flash rom.

------------------
Tom Alphin III - [email protected] - www.students.bucknell.edu/alphin/

doesn't the TRG have the slow 16mhz processor though?

dragon,

According to the specs I've seen on it, yes, the TRG device is using a dragonball processor running at 16Mhz. Don't need to consider that slow, though. It's the perception of speed on the machine that's important, and the 'older' Palms are thought to be quite speedy running on the same chip.

I don't think the should join camps and come up with a single solution. I think its good that Handspring has the Springboard, TRG as the compact flash and Palm has the upgrade slot/external add-ons via the bottom port. Gives users more of a choice and keeps options open to new ideas. Who knows what they'll come up with next...

handsprung,

I'm gonna have to agree with you on this. The more variations on the PDA theme, the better off we're all gonna be in the long run. Yeah, it will add to the confusion ("do I need springboard or CF or expansion slot or..."), but that's the price we have to pay for the freedom of choice, eh?

[This message has been edited by Zippy (edited 10-26-1999).]