Horizons, Issue 50, December 1998

New Palm for Christmas?

smaller, thinner, colour, [and with] sound recording are all options under consideration, said Andrzej Kasprzyk (Kap), of 3com UK's Palm Division.

Over the past months, there have been many rumours about new Palm models to come from 3com, codenamed Bali and Razor, but uniformly without comment from the Palm division of 3com.

Razor is said to be the model most likely to arrive first. All commentators have said that it will be much thinner than the current Palm III model, with a faster version of the new Motorola ColdFire processor. It may also have a higher resolution display, with a rechargeable Lithium-Ion battery that recharges while docked in the cradle. Other possibilities are greater memory size, a more powerful speaker, and upgrades to the IrDA system to permit HotSync, and quite possibly network access, over IR.

Bali should include all the upgrades mentioned for Razor, but with a low power colour display, graphics support for a floating Graffiti input area, a wireless modem add on, and support for external storage.

When faced with these stories, Kap said that they were spooky and farfetched, some quite close to the way we are taking. He affirmed that options 3com are considering for future products include smaller, thinner, colour, [and with] sound recording. It is possible that 3com will also widen the Palm products range, said Kap: [we are] not heading in just one direction any more. Kap also said that a new product could be available in under nine months after the release of the Palm III this April, making an appearance in time for Christmas in the USA likely.

Words and design by:
Paul Lynch
Last updated: September 8, 1998