 
By David Carnoy This time, the newly released product is the T-Mobile Pocket PC phone. The Thera for Verizon service is another Pocket PC/phone that's also on the market, but T-Mobile is the first to include the Pocket PC Phone Edition OS. In contrast, the Thera's phone software is overlaid but not integrated into the OS. Indeed, this makes the T-Mobile a smarter smart phone. But unfortunately, smarts don't always translate into success. Humble numbers I can't give you much in the way of numbers, but a Kyocera rep told me last month that the company had sold about 200,000 units of its monochrome Palm phone, the 6035. Kyocera was quite happy with the showing, which exceeded the company's expectations--or so the rep said. The company hopes to sell about the same number or slightly more of its upcoming color Palm phone, the 7135.
A large part of the problem is price. Most of these products, including the much loved BlackBerry--which, by the way, has also sold in only the hundreds of thousands--are marketed toward business users who are looking for an all-in-one gizmo with voice, wireless e-mail, and electronic organizer functions. Even so, it's hard for a company or an individual to invest $400 or more for a product that will most likely be outdated in a year's time. Kyocera's 6035, for example, was $399 when it was released last year but now costs $100 or less. Remember the phone module for the Handspring Visor? It listed for about $250 when it was first came out. Within months, it was practically free with a new service contract. Will Handspring's early Treos, the 180 and the 270, share the same fate? Perhaps. Subsidy nation In the whole hybrid scheme, only the BlackBerry has managed to hold its value, arguably because RIM's two most popular models are very well designed. They do what they're meant to do and not much more--and, in fact, much less than the T-Mobile Pocket PC phone.
The point I'm trying to make is that until their prices drop to more palatable levels, most of these devices aren't really going to be more than niche products for early adopters. Yes, someone needs to make money, but service providers and hardware manufacturers need to work on offering consumers better hardware subsidies in exchange for spending more on their service plans. I thought the idea behind these new PDA phones with higher-speed GPRS and 1xRTT connections was to get people to spend more money on data. Don't these companies know by now that people expect to pay less in the short run if they're expected to pay more in the long run? Why not tack on a two-year contract in exchange for a $200 subsidy? What's the big deal? The right idea It'll be interesting to see what happens when Sprint PCS launches its 3G network this month, as sources outside Sprint indicate. Both Sprint and Verizon, which has already launched its 3G network, will be competing for the same data-guzzling customers and coming out with phones and communicators that are Web- and e-mail-friendly, including the much-anticipated, Sprint-branded Treo. It may take a little while, but hopefully, both carriers will come to see the long-term benefits of providing more affordable hardware. At the same time, Danger has unofficially announced that its overly hyped Hip Top phone/PDA/wireless e-mail device, which appears to have a terrific design and will cost only around $200, will finally be available to consumers this September. Of course, the company's been unofficially saying this for months, so we'll take the latest claim with a grain of salt. But if it turns up and costs and works as advertised--and those are big ifs--the Hip Top will be a hit, not only because it's smart but because it's smartly priced.
David Carnoy is an executive editor for CNET Reviews. Have a question for him? Let us know!
 
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