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LifeDrive from PalmOne takes on Sony Clies; PDA market heats up
BY OUR TECH CORRESPONDENT
11 June, 2005: The world is at my palm. This could be your claim if you own LifeDrive, the first member in palmOne’s digital Mobile Manager category. The gadget is a perfect fit for today’s mobile user who wants his finger on everything while on the move – MP3 music, loads of data, a repository of photos, high-resolution colour display to enjoy full-length videos and still images, Internet and the usual office utilities to keep track of your schedules, appointments, etc.
So, what’s the big deal? There are many other PDAs that offer such services! True. But there are ways in which LifeDrive sets itself apart from the rest of the pack. One, it has a phenomenally high storage space of 4 GB and built-in Wi-fi and Bluetooth wireless support that keeps you connected. The other is the ease with which you can avail of its services. The software LifeDrive Manager does amazing work, from handling file conversions and arranging your files in several folders to storing digital camera images if your camera uses SD memory cards. You can thus free up your SD card for more photos.
Thanks to its incomparable attributes, LifeDrive promises to turn around palmOne’s drooping fortunes drastically. Till its release, Window-based PDAs and those from Palm had by and large, dominated the handheld market. With the possible exception of Treo smartphones, palmOne failed to create a buzz. Palm products simply lacked the exclusivity in their features and the slickness that today’s bourgeoning customers are ready to splurge on. With the launch of Tungsten E2, with its mid-end pricing and then LifeDrive, which would woo the high-end customers, things are looking to change for PalmOne.
LifeDrive’s closest competitor is Sony Clies. Clies had all the features that LifeDrive has: it provided MP3 music, photography, video, web, and what not. What it didn’t have is the whopping 4 GB hard-drive that gives LifeDrive the cutting edge. Then, file conversion on Clies was a critical, even frustrating process. It wasn’t simple for those who were not prepared to learn, or master a number of Sony programmes just to enable file conversions on their PDA. For those who would pay for the fun element of a PDA rather than office or work management – and there are many of them -- the higher the storage space, the greater the value for money. High storage space lets you store more songs to listen to and more videos to watch while you’re on the move.
So, what constitutes LifeDrive’s famed hard drive? It uses a 4 GB MicroDrive from Hitachi, which is meant to be used in mobile devices. The speciality of the MicroDrive is that it consumes less power and is well-equipped to absorb shocks. The other important thing about the Hitachi MicroDrive is that the data stored there remains intact, irrespective of whether the battery is up or not. This is unlike RAM on PDAs, where the data can vanish if the battery dries out. The other PDA to use a MicroDrive is Sharp’s Zaurus SL-C3000, but this one is available in Japan only. If imported, it may cost twice as much as LifeDrive. LifeDrive’s other attractions include a built-in voice recorder, 128-bit encryption to keep your data secure, and enormous expansion possibilities, all packed together in a sleek box weighing just seven lbs.
So, would LifeDrive render laptops redundant? May or may not. It’s quite like asking whether laptops would ruin the future of desktops. Technology experts believe that each of the forms have a definite use of their own, and each appeal to a certain section of users. Even if the functions are similar, it’s the design that gives a product or a category of products its niche. And the design evolves with usage of the product.
An analogy can be drawn from the mobile phone industry. Remember the first lot of them from Motorola. They were heavy, clumsy to hold and quite dissatisfying by looks. But the element of novelty pulled them through till mobile phones started becoming ubiquitous. Then came innovations in design and sleeker, slimmer models emerged and ruled for years. The latest news is that companies are again looking at and manufacturing bulkier models, at least in size if not in weight for the aged users who found it difficult to hold the thin phones. There lies the answer to the question. LifeDrive, or for that matter any other PDA can merrily coexist with laptops and desktops, since each comes with its own set of values.
BY OUR TECH CORRESPONDENT
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