Palm in at the high end

NEWS Aiming to kick-start a sluggish market for handhelds, Palm will today announce two new devices for mobile professionals and businesses. The two new devices in the Tungsten line are aimed at the high end of the handheld market and include a colour wireless device as well as the first Palm to run version 5.0 of the Palm operating system. Palm, which has been criticised for not innovating fast enough, has all-new designs for both devices. The Tungsten T, which will sell for $499 in the US, comes with a high-resolution colour screen and 16MB of memory. The device, which slides open to reveal the graffiti area, is the first Palm device to run the new version 5.0 of the Palm OS. As such, it is also the first to use a new breed of ARM-based processors, in this case Texas Instruments' 144MHz OMAP (Open Multimedia Applications Protocol) processor. The Tungsten T has Bluetooth wireless technology to connect to other devices or get wireless data access by connecting to a mobile phone. It also features a higher resolution 320-by-320-pixel screen. Meanwhile, the wireless Tungsten W is the first Palm model with a built-in keyboard and uses GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) networks for always-on high-speed data access. The device is capable of making phone calls with a plug-in earpiece but Palm is downplaying this capability. "We don't expect people to replace their mobile phone with this device," said David Christopher, senior director of product management for Palm. Although it runs an older version of the Palm OS, the Tungsten W also has a 320-by-320-pixel screen. The device will be priced at $549 in the US without a service contract, although Palm says wireless carriers may subsidise the devices to offer them at a lower price to those who sign up for a service contract. Initial shipments will begin this month in Europe, with the device hitting US shores in the first quarter of 2003. Palm plans to announce at least one carrier for the device later today.