Rumor: HTC to Manufacture Next Treo?

I agree, but the current models don't come for that price unless subsidized with a new plan by the carrier.

Like what though? I've yet to see any PPC without quality control problems (and I've owned my share) and the worst Palm OS unit I've owned in terms of quality actually happened to be a Sony (admittedly, this could have been an anomoly.

Besides, is anyone not contracting to China at this point anyway?

Tapwave, Sony and Garmin are all making better quality devices. Sonys are made in Japan. I believe Garmin is made in Taiwan + Tapwave in the US. Palms/Treos were made in US, Hungary, Mexico, Brasil + China, now almost all future models will be made in China. Palm's quality has slipped badly in the past three years (the build quality on Palms started to nosedive after they stopped making IIIxe + Vx) and it looks like this isn't about to get any better.

I don't know about your CLIE, but I've used several of their models including S300, S320, N760, UX50 and they have all been rock solid.

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> I believe Garmin is made in Taiwan + Tapwave in the US.

My Zodiac says "Assembled in China" on the back. And yes, its build quality is quite impressive.

Oliver

IMO, the quality of manufacturing is proportional to how much is spent on doing high-quality manufacturing. This includes up-front design to build devices that hold together well, as well as quality build techniques and testing that finds poorly assembled devices before they hit the market. You can get high quality goods from mainland China, but you also can get cheap goods built at very low cost. It's all up to the economic decisions made by the design company and its choice of manufacturing partners.

--
Ben Combee
http://palmos.combee.net - PDA programmer weblog

last i checked, they BUY the parts and just assemble them in the country, that has NOTHING to do with build quality, IF they were to buy some lower quality parts, then YES that would have to do with build quality, but when they put the parts together, that doesnt have ANYTHING to do with the quality

saying you want them to bring production back to america for quality is BS, have them bring it back for more jobs for our many unemployed people because more and more companies are outsourcing the assembly, which in turn takes away from the job pool avaliable to us americans

uhm... isn't this news story about palm using HTC which is a Taiwanese company?? how does China get into it? ;)

My Zodiac says "Assembled in China" on the back. And yes, its build quality is quite impressive.

Oliver

Which model do you have? I saw one of the high end ones last year and thought it was made in the USA. In any event, your comment goes to show any country can make quality goods. Palm needs to either use a better manufacturer or pay their Chinese production company enough so that they can build Palm better handhelds.

Freedom of speech, baby. Gotta love it,

You don't really understand the concept of economies of scale and massproduction at all, do you?

Sure, palmOne could bring the production "back" to North America, but would you buy the product if it was priced at $1000 upwards?

Clearly not. Pseudo-patriotism usually goes out of the window when it comes to opening up your own wallet.

Oh, and BTW - was the Treo 600 ever manufactured in the USA at all, so that it can be "brought back"?

Actually, my grasp of economics probably far exceeds what yours could ever be. Palms made in the USA would be somewhat more expensive than those made in China as labor costs here are exponentially higher. But it can be done - and without having to sell goods for ridiculously inflated prices. Much of PDA production is automated and components needed are generally few in number and available "off the shelf". People like you that give up and claim it's hopeless trying to compete with countries like China in the manufacturing industry don't understand how serious a mistake that is.

Freedom of speech, baby. Gotta love it,

I disagree. Country of manufacture still can predict a lot about quality. USA-made Toyotas, Hondas, and BMWs may "consistently outperform their GM, Ford, and Chrysler counterparts", but they also consistently are lower in quality their Japanese and Germancounterparts.

Freedom of speech, baby. Gotta love it,

It was written:

"Taiwan is not China. I happen to live in Taiwan."

Yeah, but you guys have not declared independence from China, and China is a communist military dictatorship that has nuclear weapons targeted at American children. I see no evidence of you guys trying to establish a better quality of life in your country. I buy Made in the USA, or barring that, Made in one of the G7 Countries -- UK, Canada, Japan, Germany, France, Italy, and the USA -- because other nations either are not democracies or do not support basic human rights such as life liberty and the pursuit of property. (Jefferson was originally going to write "property", but changed it.)

" There are poor quality manufacturers in your homeland, too."

Perhaps, but in the great nation of the United States of America, if you point at the White House and start screaming expletives, you will not be arrested. Our leaders are elected. We have private property. We have a requirement for due process being pursued before a man is deprived of life liberty or property. None of these things are true in 3rd world plutocracies, and DEFINITELY not true in China, a communist military dictatorship.

In China, if you protest against the government, they run you over with a tank, and there will no consequences to this, as they are a dictatorship.

"Then consider the wages that are paid in factories: in the U.S. it's at least minimum wage. In Taiwan, it could be a quarter that, or less."

You say this as if you approve of it.

" If you want to buy a PDA 100% US-manufactured, those wages are going to be a large part of the price. Think about that next time you whine that something's too expensive."

I don't. I once paid $200 for a PC case because it was Made in the USA. I am a capitalist and I believe in voting with my pocketbook. I have absolutely no problem with paying higher prices to avoid human suffering. Everything I am wearing right now is Made in the USA.

"Just to fuel your racist reactionism: Many of the factory workers in Taiwan are Filipino. How does that affect your patriotic sensitivities?"

America is a nation, not a race. There are Americans who happen to be of Asian decent. They have all the same rights and freedoms as other Americans.

--Brian, 26 male, Silicon Valley, former US Navy submariner

If you can make a better site than PalmStation - I mean Palminfocenter - then just go ahead and do it.

The site has lost its "zing" though. There used to be a lot more tips, juicy scoops, flame wars and a sense of humor aamong posters few years ago. Mike Cane is the only one keeping the tradition alive, but I worry about his health. No sign of him here for days (except this pathetic "tip") - could the end be near?

You like me! You really like me!

He has to talk about something since all of the Palm OS Cobalt device plans are under massive NDA right now.

This is pathetic. Not a single comment in over a day? The loss of interest here isn't a good sign for Palm. It's starting to look like PDAs are passé. Or is it just because no interesting PDAs have been released since the TH-55 (sorry Zire)?

Where are all the regulars here? One by one they've disappeared. Were they all killed by PPC hit squads, or just bored with Palm/Palminfocenter?

Makes me wonder how accurate Alexa data is. (The low Palmgear traffic is also surprising.)

http://traffic.alexa.com/graph?w=379&h=216&r=2y&u=palminfocenter.com/&u=

http://traffic.alexa.com/graph?w=379&h=216&r=2y&u=brighthand.com/&u=

http://traffic.alexa.com/graph?w=379&h=216&r=2y&u=pdabuzz.com/&u=

http://traffic.alexa.com/graph?w=379&h=216&r=2y&u=cliesource.com/&u=

http://traffic.alexa.com/graph?w=379&h=216&r=2y&u=palmgear.com/&u=

http://traffic.alexa.com/graph?w=379&h=216&r=2y&u=palmstation.com/&u=

Freedom of speech, baby. Gotta love it,

On the other hand, maybe there are now so many other Palm sites (Treocentral, Cliesource, etc.) that the Palm community has just become Balkanized, leaving general sites like PIC to wither. It's a shame to see Palm users split off into a bunch of special interest groups, but I suppose this was inevitable. Device-specific sites seem to be the best place for info now. Some of them (like www.treocentral.com) have forums that are incredibly active.

Freedom of speech, baby. Gotta love it,