Zaurus Out Of Production?, Rumor from German Z site Options

[HoloVector]

It's a world-wide day of mourning.

Meanie's pdaxii13 stuff is still available in case anyone needs them.

Thank you that is very much appreciated. As is all the work you have put into your site. It is awesome.

[Cresho]

Curious to see battery life in my unit. How long will my battery work till it's dead? Where can we get battery replacements?

[HoloVector]

Curious to see battery life in my unit.  How long will my battery work till it's dead?  Where can we get battery replacements? 

That is pretty much my only concern about the production stop right now.

If Sharp continues to use the pack in other devices then we should be okay since the pack will continue to be manufactured. If they don't then the pack will be the Achilles Heel of the Zaurus since lithium batteries also have a finite shelf life. Does the W-Zero-3 use an EA-BL11? I can't remember.

Of course, if the third party manufactuers in China got their acts together and actually made a replacement Zaurus battery that works out of the box (carving plastic on a brand new battery with an Exacto knife! ) this could become a non-issue as well.

[Hrw]

http://www.hrw.one.pl/2007/01/12/zaurus-li...ficially-ended/

[HoloVector]

Sharp seems to have their hands in many technologies, they are now producing the blue laser for blu-ray and hd-dvd units.

Sharp always preffered to be technology creator rather then device creator. They released c700 to show their new CG Silicon screens to the world.

I will also not give up on my C3100 and am wondering what will happen now as both pdaxrom and Oz are unfinished.

OpenZaurus developers are working on 3.5.5 release for all existing models (except SL-A300 as usual). After release most of us will probably concentrate on fixing bugs, adding software and will move to Ångström distribution as this is future of embedded distros.

That's great to hear. Thanks for all your hard work.

[dougeeebear]

IMHO, a zaurus should last as long as any other well-cared-for computer or piece of electronic equipment.
Most zaurus wounds are user-inflicted.
I would also think that support should last for one year after the very last new zaurus is sold, and new parts made available.
And with all the zaurus users, used units and parts should be available for some time to come.

[ArchiMark]

Understand and basically agree with your analysis, hrw....

But I still feel a bit sad to see the Z's not continue...

Of course, went through the same thing with the Newt too and got over it....even went to the protest rally at Apple headquarters over it...didn't do any good but we felt better....

http://www.hrw.one.pl/2007/01/12/zaurus-li...ficially-ended/

[speculatrix]

http://www.hrw.one.pl/2007/01/12/zaurus-li...ficially-ended/

One the one hand I hate the idea of the end of the zaurus line. However, I can see your point of view and slightly agree that perhaps we're better off that Sharp no longer sell a device which is so poorly supported - it opens up the market to a newcomer who won't have to compete with Sharp... for example, Nokia might now consider a clamshell variation of the N800, and the PocketPenguin suddenly has no competitor.

This could also focus attention on getting the HTC universal linux port up to scratch.

[TRIsoft]

Hi all,

I would also think that support should last for one year after the very last new zaurus is sold, and new parts made available.

support and spare parts will be available for a very long period.
Sharp is well known for spare part support lasting 5+ years after
the last unit left the factory. Today we have still access to parts
for 10 year old devices, so we don't worry about it.

Also accessories and batteries (3rd party) will still be available.
Don't forget about the real big numbers of Zauri in Japan, so
there's a noticeable demand for batteries and options for the
next years.

///TRIsoft

Marc Stephan

[mimeca]

support and spare parts will be available for a very long period.
Sharp is well known for spare part support lasting 5+ years after
the last unit left the factory. Today we have still access to parts
for 10 year old devices, so we don't worry about it.

That's a very good thing.

Also accessories and batteries (3rd party) will still be available.
Don't forget about the real big numbers of Zauri in Japan, so
there's a noticeable demand for batteries and options for the
next years.

The PSP charger looks compatible with Zaurus (on some models...)

[Capn_Fish]

I will also not give up on my C3100 and am wondering what will happen now as both pdaxrom and Oz are unfinished. Instead of replacing my laptop as I planned I should maybe think about a C3200 as a backup to my C3100. A sad day indeed.

I would assume that they will be developed for while to come, as there will still be Z users.

[adf]

I pretty much agree with hrw's assessment. I like my z's, and don't plan to get rid of them. But if i buy another handheld gizmo this year it will probably be a neo--it migh have been a new nokia. It would not have been a Zaurus. Ireally never expected to buy a Z after my 3100. Dablitz's project sounds interesting, the neo cold be the start of somehthing really cool, and nokia seems to be giving the linux handheld a serious effort.

Sharp wasn't taking the technology in any of the interesting directions it might have gone--and as hrw points out, we could all have guessed that the Z wasn't going to evolve simply based on the fact that the (sharp) software never did.

I really enjoy these forums (and plan to continue the use of my Z for some time yet) and I expect we will find a few devices that either are running linux, or will run linux nicely, and we will move on to those with a few nostalgic comments about the Z and maybe more commens along the line of "how did we ever live with out feature X?"

[cycle_55]

OpenZaurus developers are working on 3.5.5 release for all existing models (except SL-A300 as usual). After release most of us will probably concentrate on fixing bugs, adding software and will move to Ångström distribution as this is future of embedded distros.

[/quote]

How far along is Ångström as compared to Oz and pdaxrom. Thanks.

cycle_55

[Cyberdoc1971]

All of this is something that I feared, I just returned to work this week and my company stopped development for the Z last month. Just makes you wonder where linux will go to in a PDA form factor? Still trying to sell my Z (C3100), but seems like a bad time of year to buy. Also, with Sharp closing out the Z line, it looks like the age of the PDA is coming to a close, especially with all of the converged devices out there like the treo and the iphone.

[adgil]

As many of the oesf people would know by now (although I could not read the article above..), sharp's termination of zaurus is related to commercial success of new line of a wm smartphone named W-ZERO3, which hasn't long been popular in Japan because of oligopoly by communication careers. (and, one more thing, popularity of more simplistic electronic dictionary lines.)
This transition has been done as favor of a phs com module W-SIM, for which architectures are open, and now small group might be able to produce their linux mobile phones.


The problems I concern are...

Some W-SIM phones do not(and will not) have communication devices that can be used in western countries, eg Wifi, GSM. So selling and hacking these models are not expected in countries other than japan, china, taiwan, thai, and some african countries, in which the phs standard adopted.

Second, above all, zaurus's one and only sense of use and custmizability are no more garanteed.

Actually, I purchased W-ZERO3[es], may be the top seller in the W-SIM line, and have sold it and returned to SL-C760 in 2 months...

I hope anyone to produce linux-based clamshell pdas or W-ZERO3[es]'s linux rom soon...