Palm launches Pixi in bid to wow mobile mass market

American PDA firm updates the Pre with cheaper, slimmed-down version of the device that will be out in US in time for Christmas.



Palm has updated the Palm Pre, the mobile phone the American manufacturer hopes will revive its fortunes, with a slightly cheaper version of the device aimed at the mass market.

The Palm Pixi, which will be out in the US in time for Christmas, has a slightly smaller screen than its predecessor in order to make way for a full qwerty keyboard, which is likely to appeal to people who are used to using a BlackBerry.

The Pre has a slide-out keyboard, and as a result of its "candybar" design, the Pixi is thinner. Both devices recharge wirelessly and run Palm's operating system (OS).

"With Palm webOS, we're creating a new, more intuitive smartphone experience defined by unmatched simplicity and usefulness," said Jon Rubinstein, Palm's chairman and chief executive officer. "Palm Pixi brings this unique experience to a broader range of people who want enhanced messaging and social networking."

In order to make the device cheaper than the Pre, the Pixi has removed some functions such as wi-fi access. Initial tests by American gadget websites have also suggested that has less processing power than the Pre.

The Pre, which has been out in the US since the summer and will be released in the UK well before Christmas, is aimed squarely at taking on the iPhone. The Pixi, meanwhile, looks designed to compete with the next tier of touchscreen mobile phones made by the likes of HTC, Samsung and Nokia.

The Pixi will be released in the US in time for Christmas on Sprint, which also has the exclusive American deal for the Pre. A spokesman for Palm said he did not know when it would be available in Europe or Canada, but said: "Palm does plan to bring Palm Pixi to both regions as soon as it can and will announce more when appropriate".

O2 has already grabbed exclusive rights to stock the Pre and prices are expected to be revealed in the next few weeks. It is also likely to stock the Pixi.

Palm, which popularised personal digital assistants in the 1990s with products like the Pilot, has spent three years on the Pre and it represents the firm's attempt to get back into the top end, or smartphone, market, having been upstaged by Apple and RIM's BlackBerry.

Airtel set to ring in iPhone this year

EYEING the growing market for highend mobile phones in the country telecom companies are launching new models of smartphones almost every month.
The latest smartphone to hit the Indian market will be Apples iPhone, which is being brought to the country by Bharti Airtel, through a tie- up with USbased Apple Inc.
“ Bharti Airtel has signed a deal with Apple to bring the iPhone to India later this year,” the company said in a statement. Sources said Airtel may start offering iPhones around Diwali festival to its over 65 million GSM- based subscribers.
Airtel's announcement comes on the heels of the world's largest mobile phone operator Vodafone announcing last week to distribute iPhones worldwide including India. Company official's are not willing to disclose the price of the iPhone that will be launched in the country. Even Bharti Airtel gets ready to launch iPhone in India, RIM is launching a new high- end version of the BlackBerry aimed at its core base of business users. Called the BlackBerry Bold, the new smartphone would be the first BlackBerry product to support high- speed HSDPA cellular networks. It comes with integrated GPS, Wi- Fi and a host of multimedia features. The market for smartphones globally is dominated by Nokia that has a market share of 52.9 per cent in the segment. Research In Motion ( RIM), owners of BlackBerry, have 11.4 per cent market share. While Apples iPhone, which was launched last year has 6.5 per market cent, Motorola too has the same share of 6.5 per cent. Other brands such as LG and Samsung have the remaining 22.7 per cent share. The iPhone is an Internet- enabled multimedia mobile phone designed and marketed by Apple Inc. It has a multi- touch screen with virtual keyboard and buttons. The iPhones features include a camera phone, portable media player ( iPod), text messaging and visual voicemail. It also offers Internet services including e- mail, web browsing and local Wi- Fi connectivity. It is a quadband mobile phone that uses the GSM standard, and hence has international capability. It supports the EDGE data technology. In the grey market the devices are available in the range of $ 500 to 600 ( about Rs 25,000), sources said, adding that these handsets procured from the grey market need to be unlocked. The tie- up between Bharti and Apple is likely to benefit the consumers who can now avail the products from legal channels and avoid tapping the grey market. If Airtel launches the service around Diwali, ahead of Vodafone, which also plans to launch the device by the year- end, it would get the first mover advantage in the highly competitive Indian mobile market. The UK telecom giant Vodafone would be selling the iPhone in India, besides nine other markets such as Australia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa and Turkey. Apple has filed more than 300 patents related to the iPhone technology. LG Electronics claims the iPhones design was copied from the LG Prada.

New high- speed iPhone coming

APPLE INC is expected to launch a high- speed wireless version of iPhone in the second quarter and produce as many as eight million of the devices in the third quarter, according to Bank of America.
“ Our latest channel checks point to a significant production build of a 3G iPhone beginning June, after an initial small build in May,” Bank of America analyst Scott Craig said.

AT& T said last year it expects to be able to sell a 3G version of iPhone in 2008, but it declined comment on specific launch dates on Friday. Craig said that now he expects production volume to be much higher than his previous estimates. He said Apple planned to build more than three million high- speed iPhones in May followed by more than eight million in the third quarter of the year. Craig, who had previously estimated eight million iPhone units for the whole of 2008, said that was starting to look conservative unless some of the plans were pushed back.