Palm (Quote, Chart) Wednesday officially launched three new additions to its lineup, each with a different view of the PDA world.

As previously reported, the Santa Clara, Calif.-based handheld computer maker is debuting its Tungsten T3 (USD$399), Tungsten E (USD$199), and Zire 21 (USD$99) to suit the needs of its business and casual users. Similar to previous models, each one is packed with functions to differentiate them from competing models like the Dell (Quote, Chart) Axim or the Hewlett-Packard (Quote, Chart) iPAQ.

"The new units fill in the Palm line quite well," said Jupitermedia analyst Michael Gartenberg. "The Tungsten T3 fills the gap for users looking for a high-resolution screen without the bulk of a keyboard. The Tungsten E will give incentive to the legions of Palm V series owners who have not upgraded but will be attracted by the low price point and form factor, while the new Zire will continue to focus on the price sensitive markets. Overall, these products make nice additions to the Palm lineup and consumers will find that they have a myriad of selections across price points and feature sets."

But analysts are also seeing a shift in Palm's strategy with the new models with added features like Java support, landscape views and significant improvements to its Personal Information Management (PIM) capabilities.

Tungsten T3

For example, the T3 has a new feature that adds the unique ability to switch between portrait (traditional handheld viewing mode) and landscape mode. Unlike previous Tungsten's the T3 has a 320x480 resolution and 65,000 color screen and a virtual graffiti area, which disappears in landscape mode. The display, pixel wise, is 50% larger than any earlier Palm handheld. The device measures 4.25 x 2.99 x 1.6 inches and weighs 5.4 ounces, and includes a Secure Digital expansion slot for memory and peripheral expansion.

Tungsten T3              

The T3 ties the Wi-Fi enabled Tungsten C for the most amount of RAM found in a Palm with 64MB of RAM (52MB available to the user), and the fastest processor with a 400Mhz Intel XScale CPU. Like all Palms of the last few years, except for the original Zire and new Zire 21, the T3 features Palm's Universal Connector for connectivity to a large number of existing and future peripherals, such as cameras, keyboards, presentation solutions, modems and more.

Like the earlier Tungsten T models, users can listen to MP3s and record memos. The company said they've improved the Tungsten T3 over earlier Tungsten T models by enabling users to perform many more functions on the device with it in compact mode via a new toolbar at the bottom of the display with icons that can be preset to a user's favorite applications. A complaint of users of the Tungsten T and T2 has been that they've needed to open the device too often to perform certain functions, negating its compact nature. Palm also said they've improved the Bluetooth experience over the earlier models.

(see Palm Boulevard's Tungsten T 3 Hardware Information Page for more details)

Tungsten E

With the Tungsten E, with its looks, price and features aimed squarely at loyal Palm V and m5xx users and those who want a powerful handheld but not at a premium price, Palm has opted to run Palm OS 5.2 on a 126MHz TI OMAP processor and will ship with DocumentsToGo 6.0, which enables native Microsoft Office files support and a rechargeable lithium-ion battery. The device also has a good amount of memory (32MB of RAM of which 28.3MB are available to the user) and like the other handhelds in the Tungsten series, Palm's 5-way navigator for one-handed operation. It also has the same 320x320 resolution and 65,000 color display found in the Tungsten C and Zire 71.


Tungsten E

The handheld weighs 4.6 ounces and measures 4.5 x 3.1 x 0.5 inches. It has a SDIO enabled Secure Digital slot for memory expansion and peripherals, the ability to play MP3s in stereo via headphones, and video via an enhanced version of Kinoma Producer. The only wireless connectivity it has, however, is infrared.

(see Palm Boulevard's Tungsten E Hardware Information Page for more details)

Zire 21

While the Zire 21 is the natural replacement for the wildly popular original, it does not come with a Secure Digital expansion slot. Instead the crisp white PDA relies on 8MB of RAM (a 4x improvement over the original Zire's 2MB) and a faster processor. The handheld measures 4.4 x 2.9 x 0.6 inches and weighs 3.8 ounces. The display is 4-bit grayscale and it includes a rechargeable lithium ion polymer battery, but isn't compatible with Palm's Universal Connector for peripheral expansion. It is aimed at first time PDA buyers.

(see Palm Boulevard's Zire 21 Hardware Information Page for more details)

"Palm's fall lineup looks solid and the company will see good volumes with the $99 Zire 21. The $199 Tungsten E offers excellent screen resolution and will compete effectively with the Dell Axim X3 and the HP iPAQ 1935," said ARS analyst Sam Bhavnani.

In another bold move, Palm (Quote, Chart) Wednesday said it has signed a comprehensive multi-year, multi-release agreement with IBM (Quote, Chart) to distribute the Websphere Micro Environment (IBM's Java Mobile Information Device Profile runtime) with its future Tungsten handhelds.

According to Palm, it has also improved the T3's and the Tungsten E's core applications and Personal information management software. There is now a a new agenda view that shows future appointments and daily tasks, as well as color-coded calendar options, similar to what third party applications, such as Agenus, have been offering for years with icons. As for scheduling, users can now beam multiple appointments with a single command, schedule events that last past midnight and view location details. Additional contact data, includes more multiple contact addresses, more phone numbers and email addresses, instant-messaging ID, Web site addresses and birthdays, which a Palm reprehensive joked, at the recent conference call announcing the new devices to the media, could save some marriages.

Other features include repeating tasks and alarms for easier scheduling of Tasks for recurring assignments and chores, as well as larger memos and notes, something Palm users have long waited for. Also, as part of Palm's marketing push for its fall line-up, PalmOne has stepped-up support for Palm synching to Microsoft Outlook as it says upwards of 50 percent of its user-base synchs to the e-mail/PIM application. Improved Outlook compatibility includes better synchronization of new fields.

"Although PalmOne is clearly focused on a wireless future with its acquisition of Handspring, the company knows all to well how important its legacy PDA business is to its future," IDC analyst Alex Slawsby told internetnews.com. "Providing the revenue stream upon which future generations of PalmOne wireless products will be built, the company is fully committed to maintaining, expanding, and evolving its PDA products."

Despite the improvements to Palm's two branded products, Slawsby says the company has yet to prove its wireless mettle.

"Much attention is currently focused on the success or failure of the Handspring Treo 600 as an early indicator," he said. "The same uncertainty goes for the new PalmOne brand and the Treo, Tungsten, Zire sub-brands -- execution and continued understanding on end-user needs, wants, and demands (a historical strength of Palm) will be critical here.

Palm executives have repeatedly said they will only launch their brand of Treo products until after a three-way deal to change its corporate name to PalmOne; acquire the assets of Handspring; and split off its PalmSource software division as a separate publicly traded company has been completed.

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