April/May 2002

Radix counts out its long-serving FW60

You don't often find handheld computer manufacturers offering eulogies for their own equipment, but that's what Radix is doing with its popular FW60 series. It's being dropped by the company after a remarkable 14-year production run, and Radix is celebrating its long life.

No one would deny that in styling terms the unit is now showing its age, but it's certainly earned a place in the mobile computing hall of fame. No fewer than 70,000 users are said to be operating FW60 models all over the world.

So why is it on the way out? Anno domini is the simple explanation, says Radix. Demand has grown for more memory, greater integration capability, and radio frequency and Internet connectivity. Also, according to technical operations director Graham Slight: "Technology moves on, and components are becoming harder to source."

Existing users will be reassured to know that Radix plans on continuing to support the model until 2004. However, from now on new users will be steered in the direction of more modern and powerful equivalents. Keep watching our columns for more details of those in the coming months.