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Sharp Shooting for the PDA Market

On the heels of a new version of Zaurus, Sharp announces pen-based palmtop unit.

By Glenn McDonald, PCWorld   

For example, Sharp Electronics will announce Monday a new non-CE palmtop with extensive e-mail, organizer, and PC docking features. Sharp%squots pen-enabled SE-500 palmtop, expected to be available by midsummer, features a built-in modem and TCP/IP support, as well as bundled software and docking station for easy synchronization with popular PIM packages.

Although pricing information isn%squott available yet, you can expect the model to be competitive with U.S. Robotic%squots popular pen-based PalmPilot (say that three times fast), the personal edition of which sells for around $300.

With the SE-500, users can input data three ways: via electronic pen, on-screen keyboard or by importing documents from the PC. The pen function lets you send electronic handwritten notes as an attached bit-map file. The SE-500 will also come with %dquotcanned%dquot e-mail messages, basic templates for common e-mail which you can customize with the pen or on-screen keyboard.

Using the clipboard function on your PC, you can download any text from any Windows-based program into the palmtop. The model will also feature an infrared port for wireless PC communication.

Among the SE-500%squots organizer functions are a calendar and scheduling program, personal expense forms, and memo, calculator and clock functions.

In February, Sharp announced a new version of its popular keyboard-based Zaurus PDA, the ZR-3500X, for $499.

Consumers are likely to see palmtops with modems and other peripherals standard because of competition from the CE operating system, which has the look and feel (though not all the functionality) of Windows 95. Vendors including Compaq, Casio, and NEC are now shipping PDAs with a new light version of Windows for between $500 and $700.