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Palm Launches Low-Cost Zire PDA

Latest handheld offers few frills, but its $99 price tag may lure new users.

Joris Evers, IDG News Service

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Palm unveiled its Zire handheld on Monday. The $99 no-frills PDA is the first in a new Palm product line for consumers.

The Zire, with a white front and silver back, weighs 108 grams (3.8 ounces) and is the lightest Palm handheld available today, according to a statement from Palm, of Milpitas, California. The price matches that of the current low-end model, the M105, according to Palm's Web site.

The Zire runs Palm OS 4.1 and features a 160-by-160-pixel monochrome display, a Motorola Dragonball 16-MHz processor, and 2MB of memory. The device lacks an expansion slot but carries a rechargeable lithium ion battery, Palm said.

The Zire bundle includes a cable for synchronizing with a PC or Mac over USB; users can also share information and files wirelessly with other Palm PDAs via infrared, Palm said.

For the First Time

The Zire targets first-time PDA buyers. The device has the classic set of Palm applications--date book, address book, note pad, and to-dos--and it can store about 3000 appointments and 6000 addresses, according to Palm.

Higher-end PDAs on the market today typically boast a color screen, at least 16MB of memory, broad expansion options, and faster processors.

Palm announced in late September that it will brand its forthcoming consumer products Zire and its business products Tungsten. The company will emphasize security and reliability in its business products, while stressing low price and user-friendliness in its consumer PDAs.

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