Feb-March 2003

After staying clear of the handheld computer market up to now, Dell has finally come up with its own Pocket PC range. The significance? In a word, price. Dell has pitched its new Axim range at rates that start at a remarkably low £169 + VAT (and that's retail).

This buys you a fully-fledged unit with Intel Xscale 300MHz processor, 32MB of SDRAM and 32MB of Flash ROM, and a bright 3.5-inch transflective TFT colour display that matches anything in the market. For less than £60 more (and that's still cheap), you get a version with a state-of-the-art 400 MHz processor, 64MB of SDRAM and 48MB of Intel StrataFlash ROM.

These figures bring the price of Pocket PCs to levels previously associated with higher-spec Palms, which have historically remained much more affordable than models running Microsoft's operating system.

There's been no corner-cutting in the new Dell range. Reviews have more or less unanimously adjudged it an entirely serious and attractive contender in the market. And that could herald a progressive fall in the prices of all PDAs, including those used for business applications.

 

It has always been assumed that Pocket PC-based PDAs would gradually become more affordable. What was not expected was that the drop should be so sudden or come so soon. Buyers will now be watching prices attentively to see how the rest of the market responds.