It's almost identical to the zaurus in appearance but what does it run?

Papyrus

It's not Linux. It's some sort of Sharp in-house organizer OS (if you can really call it an OS). The screen is 480x272 only so it is a step down from the C series Zaurii. It's hard to believe Sharp would focus on these rather than the Zaurus.

lpotter recently said that Sharp have abandoned qtopia and linux

But is it possible to flash a ROM onto this thing?

@everyone

<rant> I don't know why every time Sharp launch a new dictionary, someone has to post something about a new Zaurus. Until Sharp call a new product "Zaurus" it ain't one, OK ? </rant>



Sharp will use Qtopia and Linux again if and when it suits their purposes. They are a business, pure and simple. If there is a profit to be made from using Linux then they will use it. History has shown this is what they do, they will do it again.

True enough, but they seem to be marketing impaired in this regard. The basic Z design could have become a line of appealing products (damn I sound like intel pushing the mid--and I didn't like their pitch)from a 5500 sized smatphone to a clamshell (with maybe a few enhancements) upc. If they had been more attuned to software development, kept an eye on opensource projects and paid attention to product placement they could have made money, I suspect. Essentially, it seems
like sharp was in a position to cover a segment of the upc market, and do what nokia and openmoko are doing. They are possibly still in a place to compete, if they care to. I think the issue is that they have so many businesses that the relatively small handheld market doesn't seem to them worth the effort to compete in...or something like that. How does this market, and a best case of sharp's profit, compare to A/V gear or other appliances sharp makes?

This is why I keep hoping someone will buy the Zaurus brand/technology from sharp--it could become something in the hands of people who wanted it to. (It'll never happen, but it needs to be said)

(Above quote edited for brevity)

You're thinking like a user, not a business. PDAs don't sell like mobile phones (one of Sharp's 3 big business areas). Zaurus is a showcase for Sharp's display technology (CGS) and, coincidentally, dictionary products.

When you say they have too many businesses, you're right: Sharp is not in the PDA business, they are in the display business. 8th generation LCD factories aren't cheap you know. Developing software and pushing upgrades for low selling products is not worthwhile and a distraction from the big picture.

Don't get me wrong, I'd love Sharp to make a new Zaurus and keep the product going; I just don't think it's worth holding your breath.

This new Papyrus has a nice but comparatively low resolution PSP display. It may look similar to a Z in photos but it's much bigger.

thinking like a user? maybe--- but I bet someone makes money in z sized umpcs.... and i bet apple makes money with i-phone. the issue, as I think we agree is that sharp makes more money doing other stuff.

otoh--what is to stop someone else from buying sharps screens and making something interesting?

> thinking like a user? maybe--- but I bet someone makes money in z sized umpcs....

Maybe that person is in China, Taiwan or Korea; probably not Japan.

When I said thinking like a user, I meant more like "wishful thinking". The Z
community needs to be a bit more cold, hard, business-like!

> i bet apple makes money with i-phone. the issue, as I think we agree is that sharp
> makes more money doing other stuff.

Apple are not selling a phone are they ? That's a status symbol. If you want a phone I'm sure you can buy something better, cheaper.

> otoh--what is to stop someone else from buying sharps screens and making something
> interesting?

Firstly, Z screen is now several years old and only VGA so it's old tech. Secondly, you need to be able to sell a lot in order to get a bulk discount. Thirdly, Sharp might decide not to sell to you, don't believe you can pay, don't want a competitor, etc. etc.

True enough about the i-phone. And I think, based on enthusiasm about other "not quite the same" devices like theKoshjiinja (sp) or the nokia most of the Z community will move on when there is something that is along the same lines and shows enough improvement to warrant it--like a better screen, as you mentioned--or more processing power , memory ,connectivirty-the usual stuff that get rehashed here regularly. I think (in my case it applies, certainly) that a lot of the wishful thinking is based on 2 easily reproducible elements-Linux, and the clamshell with a decent keyboard. There simply isn't anything else that qute does it just now

I've personally met the VP of R&D who was in charge of the Z project. (He visited the university research institute where I was working at the time - that's where I got my 5000D)

An engineer friend of mine who was working with me at the time, and who is a fellow Z enthusiast, actually called him up late last year. He'd been moved to the W-Zero 3 project at the time, but the contents of the conversation were interesting.

1) Sharp considered the Z a dictionary. Full stop.

2) They more or less picked Linux as the OS at random.

3) They didn't know *anything* about the open source community. It was a total mystery to them. They couldn't understand why anyone would want access to the OS source code, or what they would do with it. I suspect they licensed the closed branch of Qtopia totally without thinking - the concept of the source code being useful to us never even occurred to them.

Because who'd want the source code to a dictionary, anyway?

Bah. Bitter memories.

This explains a lot. I guess I can finally give up hope on a next gen Zaurus given the number of "dictionaries" Sharp has put out in Korea since they stopped production of the Zaurus. My hope now shifts to hoping Sharp wants to get into the UMPC, MID market and show everyone how to build a quality clamshell device.