Acer s50 and s60 to Be Available Worldwide (Updated)

Do you see my point? Palm OS/Palmsource are never going to achieve world domination, much less wide-spread penetration of the US market if this nonsense keeps up. Greedy manufacturers, only concerned about making a few quick bucks by selling us new cases and styli and cradles each time around have no long-term vision. Sony can afford to keep this up, but the others cannot. Sooner or later, people are going to catch on that this is an endlessly vampiric game of trying to suck the loyal customers dry...and alienating those potential new users. Imagine the confused middle-aged buyer tring to fathom why the equally clueless compusa salesperson is telling him that the m125 is so drastically different from the m105 swo that they cannot use the same cradles/styli. Or, trying to deduce if an m515 will use acessories that only say m500/505 on the packaging. Just think how much Palm has spent updating their MMC card and UC acessory packaging to reflect the new UC-compatible m1xx series and m700s.

For example, the rash of 12 bit screens on the market recently (m130, Treo 90, Acers) will now require some company like Astraware to program their games in 3 versions (Zap 2000, 2012, and 2016, for example) or run the risk that Joe 6-pack thinks Astraware cannot program games properly because his game has all sorts of nasty dithering on the screen. Then there's the fun with Sony high-res OS4 devices vs Handera high-res vs. Acer's OS5 API on an OS 4 device...so if a developer wants to support everything, he has to release 6 "tweaked" versions of his same game/app (or run the risk of having bloated code).

On top of that, we have the fun job of trying to keep track of which units support I/O card functions and which ones do not. Furthermore, there is the amusing task of downloading program updates etc. and the slew (i'm pretty sure) of updates which will be needed by some legacy programs to run on OS 5.

Finally, a minor but worrying aspect is the new upcoming low-end Palm device. If its specs are as rumored, then how are all of the existing games/apps going to handle the 2 missing buttons? Can the plastic buttons and their necessary switches/wiring cost THAT much to Palm in the long run? If they are trying to target the teen/youth market with this device, then they are going to be pretty bummed when their new gadget they got for graduation won't play any action game that requires all of the hardware buttons. Now, if there was a fully integrated D-pad and only 2 "action" buttons....

My post here is not really about the Acer handhelds per se (they look to be quite nice, actually), but rather a statement about what is happening to the industry in general. I think that instead of whining about having a voice recorder or not, or the styling of a new unit, we should be worried about streamlining the standards and increasing compatability across the board, regardless of manufacturer. Perhaps if Palm were to release the UC standard for free...but that will never happen!

Only on your side of the pond. You've got to realize that the USA market, although currently the largest, is not the largest _potential_ market. Acer is already producing a Chinese OS Palm and already has Asian name recognition. I keep trying to remind people that China is really big and has a whole lot of people. You've got to think outside your borders.

I think that my point was trying to play devil's advocate and show everyone here how confusing the market has become for the average non-techie user. Say, someone who installs an app or game here and there but doesn't get down to the nitty gritty like PIC readers do.

As far as the comment about card slots supporting I/O, it was not really from the standpoint of an app being programmed to recognize whether or not a device is properly enabled, but rather just of a user being able to say "Unit X can support such-and-such whereas unit Y from the competition cannot". This basically goes along with my friend (who works at Best Buy) saying how many returned AGP cards they get from customers furious that it will not fit into the AGP slot-less E-machines/Intel 810-based computers.

For example, using my SD/MS I/O comment, say Joe Consumer wanted to buy a bluetooth Sd card or GPS memstick....assuming they were readily on the market and available at any good mass merchandiser. Joe Consumer would have no way (unless the card's packaging is very concise and he reads the fine print) of knowing that his Treo 90 cannot accept the bluetooth that his friend's m500 Palm is using. You se my point now? Or if "Joe" wants to borrow the BT card for a few days to see how he likes it on his Treo. Same scenario if someone with the new Acer unit wants to try his buddy's Sony memorystick camera/GPS card.

I was just using the further confusion regarding the recent stories of confusion over 12/16 bit screens and whether or not an expansion slot support I/O cards to further my argument about someone needing to set some standards for this market.

At any rate, thanks for educating me about the finer aspects of dithering. One more question, though, can the Sony Clie NR series screens be considered yet another API or does that not really count since there are no apps that support the screen in its full non-Grafitti size/resolution?

What would be pure genius on Acer's part, IMHO, is if they utilized the Sony T-series connectors on the bottom of their new units. This would go a looong way to providing a breath of stability to the market and would certainly encourage manufacturers of peripherals to not be to hesitant about releasing new products (Stowaway keyboards etc) when new handhelds are released. I bought my m505 when it first came out last year and I recall waiting for what seemed like *forever* for UC cables and accessories to be released--anyone remember the eternity we waited for the official Palm hard case to come out? Let's encourage some standardization here, folks!

Who needs to wait for that to come out when the portable wireless can opener is coming one month before the 802.11b MS's come out.

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you should buy something, and get an upgrade plan from best buy or CC.

just because OS is out, doesnt mean its going to be released for us right away, give it some time, and stop being so impatient, or it will never make it here.

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Neither did I.