Sp1got posted a very interesting thought on PDA-247 yesterday concerning Palm producing better Palm OS PDAs than Sony in the golden age of PDAs. I personally think that Sony did the better job, but it would be interesting to hear what you think.

It seems that my little comment about prejudices has touched a nerve.

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.

Murray from Palm-Mac has been playing with his new Palm OS PDA, a Clie TH55. Probably the best Palm OS PDA ever made, but will he realise the true greatness of it….?

“My latest doomed gadget arrived yesterday and I have been setting it up since but desperately trying not to be too anal about it. I normally feel obliged / under pressure to get it fully operational asap but this time am determined to be more relaxed and in control, ahem. Initial impressions are of a very nice device with some typically quirky Sony interface and hardware touches….jog dial on back of the device?! Quirkiness is all very well as long as it does not get in the way of usability, something Sony at times seem loathe to embrace. The software allows you to use the fancier Sony launcher which I find less intuitive than the Palm version but that may well be down to unfamiliarity more than anything else. Nonetheless I soon reverted back to type. Sony has tweaked some of the Palm PIM stuff to add the ability to add notes and pics, for example, into the Calendar which is a nice touch. Their Free Notes app is nice though and lets you write straight into it and then link them to other PIM bits. I’m going to keep using the Sony PIM apps over the Palm apps as they offer more functionality and just look really good…”