I just received word that Palm has officially closed down production of their three remaining classic handheld PDAs. By March 1, 2009 Palm will no longer be manufacturing the Palm Z22, the Tungsten E2, or the Palm TX.
While some will find this news difficult to accept, these three icons from Palm’s original mobile computing business have had a long service life. The Tungsten E2, the oldest of the trio (not “Treo”), was released in April of 2005. I am not aware of any other Palm device that enjoyed a 4 year service life. Not even the wildly popular Tungsten C had a shelf life of that long. The remaining two PDAs, the Z22 and the Palm TX (sometimes referred to as the “Tungsten T7 or Tungsten X) where both released in October 2005.
Palm executives have been sending out warnings that the traditional PDA business was coming to an end. During quarterly conference calls, Palm President and CEO Ed Colligan likened the PDA business to a passenger jet coming in for a smooth landing. Today we learned that the plane has touched down, taxied to the gate, and the engines have been powered down.
You will still be able to purchase Palm’s handheld PDAs from the Palm online store and other retailers until inventories are fully depleted. If you are interesting in purchasing the last flagship handheld, the Palm TX, Palm is currently selling the PDA for $199 (regularly $299) at their online store. Palm’s online store also has the Z22 on sale for $99 (no discount). It appears that the Tungsten E2 is completely sold out at the Palm online store.
I have been using Palm’s handhelds since 1999. The last 10 years have been lots of fun learning about, using, and supporting Palm’s products on Brighthand, 1SRC, and Palm’s own community help forums. Palm’s PDAs may soon be gone from store shelves, but I still have my Tungsten T5, TX, and LifeDrive on my computer desk.
13 Comments
Anonymous
As a very light user of my cell phone, I’m not about to start paying $30+/mo. to get a smartphone – currently it costs me only $5/mo. for my cell service.Attention Palm: will you please work out a deal with Virgin Mobile so I can replace my PDA when it dies??!!
T
Palm delivers good products but give poor service.
I seem to have woken up late on this whole issue of Palm discontinuing their PDAs but its been hellish this week since. If their PDAs were not such a good fit for me, I'd drop my search for a new one quickly given their deplorable customer service.
I've been looking to replace my E2 with a TX before there are no more around, to no avail for a mere non-UK based European client…Any leads to find a new one is appreciated.
Anonymous
I too am sorry that PDA,s are now cell-phone based.My Palm TX has been very reliable, especially with the external keyboard. No need to lug a laptop to conferences. The bluetooth has been a great sleuth for turned on cell-phones in my classroom and the word is out that my class is cell-phone free…use it and lose it! I'll try to keep my TX alive as long as possible.
Ben
I suppose it was inevitable that the rise of the smart phone would end the life of the dedicated PDA but I still love my Palm and use it daily. I have three Palms and I am currently awaiting delivery of my forth, a LifeDrive bought from eBay – should keep me going a few more years!
handheld organizer
I remember my first Palm product well! It was Palm T | X I really wanted one, but I simply couldn't justify the price tag for myself, since I simply wanted it as a programmable handheld computer toy, not an organizer.
wei
I just got my plam TX for $100 USD on craigslist, there should be some more on amazon and ebay cost around 120. Palm TX is a great device!
mazamora
I've used PDAs since about 1993: the crappy chiclet keyboard things you could get then.
Then I found the Palm Pilot in 1996 and didn't turn back. I then went through the 1000, Pro, IIIx, Vx, LifeDrive, and finally, a TX when the LifeDrive died a few years ago.
I am now sadly replacing my trusty TX with a Nexus One smartphone. It's time to join the masses.
On the other hand, my TX will live on as an internet radio appliance in its cradle in the home office until it drops dead. I expect about a decade more from that little box.
Kalinon
an airplane landing? that's the most ridiculous idiotic thing I've ever heard!! Just because Palm(one) stopped making ALL their PDA related items in favour of ugly looking 'smartphones' doesn't mean the PDA is dead or that other companies stopped making them. HP Ipaq is still around for starters. What about Archos or the UMPC, handheld computers/devices or even media devices. Oh ya I think the fruit producer have a PDA style device-some kind of handheld without a friggin' cellphone. I had a cellphone and got rid of it and WILL NOT buy another one because I don't want a cellphone. Palm(one) had a nice line-up and GarnetOS was nice-I still use a T/X but did a little snooping around and found lots of PDAs still being produced and sold or still flying around if you will. Maybe they don't say Palm on them and sure some of them are really ugly, but just because Palm(one) killed off their PDA line for 'smartphones' does not mean everyone else followed suit. SO use the WWW and look around, I'm sure you'll find some other companies HANDHELD device or even a new Palm(one) that isn't a cellphone. Oh Ya the internet has accessories flying right beside the PDA(the just might not say Palm anywhere one them)
Pete
I have been using Palm PDAs for the last 15 or so years and found them very reliable address books (I has 5,000 names and addresses, tied to my business). The one I am using, I bought 10 years ago (M130) and is still working but the battery has a short life. I bought an iPAQ tx2400 and found it totally usless as an address book (or as anything else for that matter). I want to stay with a Palm as an address book (its sole purpose). What unit do you recommend.
Tavis
Its quite sad that palm is stopping the production of their PDAs. They've been making them since 1992, that's 18 years of PDAs. They shouldn't have stopped making them, besides its better to have your PDA separate to your smart-phone for several reasons, for example if your talking to someone on your smart-phone and you want to browse your date book or to-do list, you'd have to hang up. Ive had a Palm Pilot Professional, an m500, a Vx, and I'm still currently using my Palm TX.
Anonymous
I love the Palm TX model and found a replacement at the below link. I am very disappointed that they discontinued this model.
http://www.porterelectronics.com/servlet/the-263/HANDHELD-PALM-TX/Detail
Eyjafjallajokull
Is there a future for all the data (Contacts, Memos, Calendar) in our Palm TX? Has Palm left an upgrade path for the data, by making it possible to migrate the TX data into the OS of whatever smartphones they have had since the TX, or will have in future?
Or did they leave us high and dry, with no option but to re-enter all our bazillion bits of data into Palm smartphones from scratch?
Alan Grassia, Editor
You will always be able to export your data as a .csv file from Palm Desktop. If you are upgrading to a Palm webOS device, Palm has a tool for importing your old data from your Palm OS device or Palm Desktop.
Lastly, if you sync with Microsoft Outlook on. Windows PC, you can simply sync your new device to migrate your data.
Alan G