Informative comment Sp1got and I can see where you are coming from. However, to use the word predudice is maybe the problem- I think of it as me personally having a preference for the Clie range when they came out and not having a predudice against Palm PDAs.

“Does a swivel screen help me juggle my appointments? No, of course not. Same goes with 320 x 320 pixel displays and all the other ‘features’ that Sony included in their devices. ”

A hi-res screen makes a lot of difference compared to a 160×160 screen from a practical point of view.

“The bottom line is simply this: CLIE devices were over-hyped compromises. Where they PDAs trying to be cameras? Or were they walkmans trying to be PDAs? They were neither fish nor foul, if you ask me.”

Sorry, but that is completely wrong. They were Palm OS PDAs which kept the core OS and which worked identically to Palm branded PDAs. Yes, they had questionable cameras and other bits which you may not have liked, but they were very similar in price to Palm branded handsets and were built very well. What’s wrong with having extras which do not intrude on the PDA side?

“Looked at as simply a PDA, the typical CLIE included ‘features’ which offered little real utility for the user.”

Sony never wanted to build simply a PDA and in my opinion did move Palm along a bit. No smartphone today is a simple PDA and I still believe Sony had something to do with that. I agree Sony failed miserably and could have done more, but to suggest that “CLIE advocates can’t accept that they backed the wrong horse – they continue to go on and on about all the terrific ‘features’ of the CLIE devices – but those people don’t seem able to realise that Sony simply failed in what they set out to achieve” sounds more like predudice to me than anything else written so far.

After all of that I will drag your thoughts to the front page (without mine atched:)) to see what others think. Makes for a great debate.

Before I address this, let me say that I recently purchased a reburbished m515. This is a reaction to my disappointment with all the devices I have owned over the last 5 or 6 years. To put it briefly, I was sick of all the senseless bells and whistles introduced to PDAs by Sony and others. I realised that I have no need for a device which takes second rate photos; I have no need for a device to play music through tiny little earbuds; I have no need for a device which has WiFi or GPS or 3G etc, etc, etc. By contrast, the m515 does everything I want and it does it all rather well.

When I look back to some of the so-called ‘breakthrough’ CLIE devices, all I see is a company (Sony) adding all sorts of questionable ‘features’ in an attempt to differentiate itself from the market leader (Palm). Does a swivel screen help me juggle my appointments? No, of course not. Same goes with 320 x 320 pixel displays and all the other ‘features’ that Sony included in their devices.

Palm reacted to Sony’s folly by copying it. Do you remember the dreadful Tungsten T line? It was not until the Tungsten E that they were able to get back on track (ie, devices which are focused on helping people manage their busy lives). But by then, the market was shifting, and Palm, weakened as they were by various distractions, did not have the resources to adapt adequately. But I’m disgressing.

The bottom line is simply this: CLIE devices were over-hyped compromises. Where they PDAs trying to be cameras? Or were they walkmans trying to be PDAs? They were neither fish nor foul, if you ask me. Looked at as simply a PDA, the typical CLIE included ‘features’ which offered little real utility for the user. These ‘features’ were added merely to give the marketing people something to prattle on about.

I’m sure that the tech buffs will be aghast at that last statement, but let’s keep this in perspective: Palm created a market which generated decent profit margins. Sony tried to muscle in. Sony threw some money at it for a few years, but they gave up when they decided that had little to show for all their efforts.

Of course, the CLIE advocates can’t accept that they backed the wrong horse – they continue to go on and on about all the terrific ‘features’ of the CLIE devices – but those people don’t seem able to realise that Sony simply failed in what they set out to achieve.

It’s yet another example of prejudice clouding one’s view of reality.

Palm had the name and track-record in the business sector – people were purchasing the Tungsten because of the name. Period. Sony’s models beat ALL Palm offerings hands down. That is not prejudice – just look at the T and N series machines and compare feature-by-feature to comparable Palm offerings. Trust me – I certainly did, as I was purchasing during that time.

And Palm had a big market share, if it wasn’t the leader in this area, but still theire devices were boring, uninspiring and showed no effort of evolvement. If it wasn’t for the likes of Sony and Handspring, then Palm would have been died for sure!

People were angry about the models at that time lacking wifi, lacking multimedia features, lacking HiRes+.
But yeah, that is all ‘prejudice’.

It seems that old prejudices die hard.