Is The Z, Archos Pma, Etc Dead? Options

[Cyberdoc1971]

I know some of this has been touched on in pother previous forums, but has the age of the Linux-powered pda (Zaurus/Archos PMA/Etc.) come to an end? This was in discussion especially when Sharp made the decision to discontinue the Zaurus line. I have also seen the decline in other PDA lines (Palm and Windows Mobile), with very little news of any new PDAs coming out(personally, the Follio is a sub-notebook, not a PDA).

I have seen other users Z's and other units starting to have problems, and lack of parts does not help. Like you I got into the mobile Linux when it started up, I was lucky recently to get my hands on an Archos PMA430, bit I have concerns that the PDA is about dead to make way for the converged device, which I am not too fond of. So people, what are your thoughts on this?

[T3_slider]

Yes, but UMPCs aren't doing very well. I've never seen a UMPC out in the wild -- the smallest laptop I've seen is a Libretto. The masses just aren't geeky enough to spend that kind of money on something when they could get a laptop for much less. Maybe in 20 years everyone will have a very small UMPC that does everything they need and then they can just hook it up to a docking station when they get home and use it as a full PC. But that day has not come, and right now all of these gadgets are for geeks. There just isn't a market for it yet.

[nilch]

Yes, but UMPCs aren't doing very well. I've never seen a UMPC out in the wild -- the smallest laptop I've seen is a Libretto. The masses just aren't geeky enough to spend that kind of money on something when they could get a laptop for much less. Maybe in 20 years everyone will have a very small UMPC that does everything they need and then they can just hook it up to a docking station when they get home and use it as a full PC. But that day has not come, and right now all of these gadgets are for geeks. There just isn't a market for it yet.

I am not so sure ... if there are 4-5 companies bringing out UMPC's or UMPC styled PDA's, then surely its not for geeks anymore. You can bet your dollar that so many comanies will not be making products (or experimenting even) for a market whose time has not come yet. Yes, I do agree that not too many people are buying yet - thats mainly because of the price factor - but the day a UMPC breaks the $1000 barrier, it won't be too much more for it to become a consumer product.

Yes on the other hand the converged device like the smartphone (a PDA+phone) is more of a mass market product now. It must have taken some time for it to become so, cause many people did say that a phone and a camera and a pda - an all in one device - just wouldn't work. It was too complex for notmal people.

20 years you say - I am sure that's just figurative speech.

Of course I am not future teller either and I could be dead wrong.