From Jason @ Dynamism:


The C3000 is regularly $899 at Dynamism. Please note that website ordering for the C3000 is currently unavailable, so use the number or email listed above.
The C3000 is expected to ship in two weeks.




(ZeeUser is not an employee or representative of Dynamism. All information presented in this posting is taken from email correspondence with Dynamism or from Dynamism's website)

Just an FYI on current pricing I have cound on the Sharp Zaurus SL-C3000 as of 1/19/2005 at 10 am Est.


http://conics.net/shp/pda/zaurus-sl-c700/sl-c3000.html is currently offering it for $735 + $32 shipping = $767

http://www.lolzer.com/ is asking $735 but the shipping is ~$$56.92= $794.99

http://www.pricejapan.com/PriceJapan_com.htm is $713, this includes shipping.

http://www.shirtpocket.co.uk/cat/ is £501.28 + £25.95 for shipping = £527.23 or $689.250 but there could be other costs to tender payment . I haven't figured this one out completely yet. Looks like there could be a 4.5% charge for using a credit card =$31.00 raising the cost to $720.25

http://www.streamlinecpus.com/store/ is $799.99 shipping is $7.65 (ups ground) =$807.64



Don't know if this helps anybody or if I'm out of line, but I've been shopping for these and felt it would be good to share what information I have found. I'm personally leaning towards making my purchase from pricejapan.com



Hope this information is helpful and I haven't stepped on anyone's toes (dymanism.com)

Chris

I found PriceJapan was amazing to deal with. The unit was shipped out on Tuesday, I had it Friday. Great prices also.

Not at all. You are helping people by giving people choice. And everyone loves choice (except of course Microsoft, Bush, and the Justic Department LOL )

Thanks for the research.

thanks very much for that survey - it shows the huge disparity between buying from a local importer and buying from an Jp-based exporter...

the shirtpocket C3000 is US$1100 - a huge price gain over the PriceJapan!

there's a Yahoo shop who also sell Z's, but I don't have their URL to hand, sorry.

I noticed on pricejapan.com the 3000 is now $657 shipped. How can you beat that. That is even with DHL shipping, and not their other shipper. The only drawback I could see is that the unit will come in Japanese language. But I'm sure with help from this ZUG, it could be up and running cacko in no time!

And convertring it is easy ..atleast so I have read. Below is the information I found on what it takes to convert it to English. It appears to be as simple as two commands.

"su
reconv

After which the unit will reboot and be in an English only mode (Japanese Inputs remove, Input switching removed, Larger fonts, etc...).

Typing the two commands again will revert the unit back into hybrid mode to allow for the translation software to work again.

As well, please see the following forum post at ZaurusUserGroup for more information about the C3000 and its Issues/Solutions:

http://www.oesf.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=8846 "

noticed it is up to $702 today there ...

Here's my current view, from England...

(best viewed in a fixed width font - see attachment)
<font face="Courier">
price includes shipping to Eu unless "+s" on price

760 860 3000
------------------------------------
Conics $520* $610 $780 (shipping $50)
£275 £323 £413
(* used - 1 month warranty)

Brando $735 $860
£390 £456


TriSoft E600+s E839+s
£414+s £579+s

Lolzer $595 $795

PriceJapan £300 £383

ShirtPocket £475 £590 (uk seller)

Streamline $660+s $800+s

Dynamism $820+s
£434

$600+s $729+s (demo)
£318+s £387+s (demo)
</font>

I just ordered a SL-C3000 from Dynamism this week...and paid considerably less than the Dynamism prices mentioned in this post. Granted, I'm in the U.S.A., so my shipping is considerably less. I'd highly suggest U.S. folk to give them a phone call (with other vendor's prices in hand) and see what they'll quote you. You may be pleasantly surprised.

so how much did you pay for it??

I suggest that, If you live in Europe, you buy from Conics instaid of PriceJapan.And that is because:

PriceJapan offers the C3000 at 554 Euros (720.520 USD).That INCLUDES shipping.Quite good, the lowest price I've seen (Outside Ebay, that is).BUT, if you live in Europe, you'll need the universal charger that costs another 30 Euros (Although it's not necessary to buy it from PriceJapan for that price).

So, for guys (Or gals ) who want to buy a C3000 from PriceJapan, you need at most 584 Euro (760 USD), unless you find another adaptor (Still...).One more thing, I think that PriceJapan does NOT support the units after it sends them (As in Warranty), and also, they come in Jap.It's just the middle-man.

Conics, on the other side, offers their C3000 at 560 Euros (729 USD) each, including a choice of
( A ): a free Adapter for World-wide use or
( B ): a free 2nd Sharp North American AC adapter

PLUS a 12 month warranty.With shipping (To Europe), it goes up to 600 Euros (778.00 USD).The units also come in english for free (Also the site has a full guide for free).

So, wilst PriceJapan IS cheaper, albeit just a little, I guess Conics is quite better because it's got better support, cleaner transactions and 12 Month Warrantys on their C3000.

That's a nice buyers guide, now, isn't it?

All the information enclosed in this post is were correct at 1/2/2005 (That is, D/M/Y, not M/D/Y).Also, I hope I'm not stepping on anyone's toes (Dynamism, etc.)

Thanks, BL for that perspective. Altho people have said how efficient PriceJapan are, I think that a pre-conversion *and* the backing of people who know the product well enough to provide English tech support is worth while.

I've added Kemplar to my table; they only do the 760. Sorry about the formatting, looks great on console in fixed-point font.

Paul
--
price includes shipping to Eu unless "+s" on price

760 860 3000
------------------------------------
Conics $520* $610 $780 (shipping $50)
£275 £323 £413
(* used - 1 month warranty)

Kemplar $775+s - -

Brando - $735 $860
£390 £456


TriSoft - E600+s E839+s
£414+s £579+s

Lolzer - $595 $795

PriceJapan - - E554
- £300 £383

ShirtPocket - £475 £590 (uk seller)

Streamline - $660+s $800+s
£425

Dynamism - - $820+s
£434

- $600+s $729+s (demo)
£318+s £387+s (demo)

Interesting thread started here I just wanted to touch on a few things that may or may not be important. Most company's know what each other sell items at whether it be from reading, surfing, or what have you so some try to offer more than just a unit itself. My feeling is if you are going to offer a unit that is not supported in the US then you need to be able to support it not only for yourself but for the customer. When I say support im not always talking about help with functions etc. I am talking about offering the customer a product that comes with what you need (manuals, the correct adapters, localisation, testing). I believe you need to sell a product fully not sell one where the customer has to do all the work to make the product usable.
When looking at prices many of us could sell these units at the same pricing everyone else does if we wanted to give you nothing with it. I think you have a great list of retailers of products going here but no listings of the "extras". Many of the retailers you name above have excellent products but all offer something different that sets them apart. I guess what I am saying is price is one thing and functionality with dependable support is another. This is not meant as advertising but as a retailers perspective because I personally believe "many" of the above are great, respected retailers we just all offer a different product.
Finally, also lets take into consideration the cost of importing and warranty claim. Warranty claim can be expensive if the unit cannot be repaired in house it has to be returned to Sharp Japan which the retailer pays freight for. Also looking into whether the units are CE/FCC tested. This costs a retailer around $2000 for testing plus or minus depending on the tweaking involved to get a unit to pass this testing. In Europe and the US this testing is needed in order to sell the units legally.
This is just a little food for thought from the retailers end of things I hope this helps shed some light on the differences in pricing and that "most" of the time there is more involved the just a simple raising and lowering of the price.

Yes, I can see what you mean.

Now, as I understand, You're the owner of streamlinecpus online shop.I saw your site and your prices and I have to tell you, they are quite good, IF they include shipping.

Now, what you offer is this:

1)12 Month warranty, a feature also offered by Conics (For a lower Price).

2)A free American Adaptor is offered.Now, I don't know if it will work for us Europeans, but, Conics offers: Either a second North American Adaptor or a Adaptor for world use.

3)English Localisation.Now, wilst Conics also offers English Localisation in it's package, It's just a transelation (And easily done at home with their free online guide), you offer full localisation (Programs etc.), or at least, thats what you say.

3)You offer a free quick-start guide, in english, of course.Wilst it's not a full manual, and it's available for free at Trisoft in it's electronic form, it's a plus.

4)And last, but not least, you test the devices yourselves, to minimise, or even prevent DOA.I think that's a great advantage over your competitors, I believe that any retailer that uses the device BEFORE it is sent to the buyer (English Localisation etc.) effectively tests it for flaws, although they might not be all that apparent.I believe you make thourough testing, not just powering the device up to see if it works.

And I believe you fully support your customers?

Now, wilst many of these advatages warrant a price climb, some of the features you offer are already being offered for lower prices, wilst others are easy to make make for yourself (Manual, English Localisation,Extra Software).The way I see it, and that does not neccesarily mean that others share my opinions (Although, I have to say, I'm only 16, with no constant income, so money tends to be hard to come by ) the only major offer you have to make is the pre-testing, and probably better support (At least in the US), and I'm willing to "risk" a little to save some money.

As a final note, I only compared Conics to StreamlineCpus, not because I'm in some way affiliated with Conics, but because I believe it's got the lowest price, for the services it offers.Also,I think Conics is Japan Based, so, if your Zaurus has a problem, you have to zip it back to Japan for warranty (That way Conics avoids FCC/CE electronic testing pricing), wilst StreamlineCpus is US based (For us euro guys we've got Trisoft).

I hope I didn't hurt anyone with all this (Stephen), or helped anyone else (Conics).Every retailer has a diffrent choices, and it's up to you to make up your mind.

Thanks,
Alex.

Hi everybody (and "big-post-warning"),

now we have to put our 2 cents in:

What Stephen says, is that you can't just compare prices.
You will get a different solution from every dealer. To show
two extremes as example:

1st: Some dealers just get the units from japan, change the
"language=jp" to "=en" and call it a localisation.

2nd: Others (cough) import devices, invest lots of money and
weeks of workload in localisation, finetuning, CE/FCC testing,
writing a manual, stocking parts, offering exchange devices in
case of repair... Simply: Work like you could expect it from a
major manufacturer. Not mentioned supporting Zaurus-related
Linux projects with free or massively discounted stuff.

If you think you'll able to collect all informations from the net and
just look for the best price: Get it from a japanese exporter and
have fun with your Zaurus.

If you want a solution that works right out of the box including the
"make me happy with support and warranty": Go to a professional
dealer.

That's all. Look what's behind the scenes and contact the source
before you buy. We daily support devices from self-importers and
bought from other sources. From what we see there we urgently
recommend that everybody who's spending his hard earned money
should closely look what he's getting for it.

@Lizzard: Regarding the manual and ressources:
You're right that we provide it in our free download section. We
don't see a reason why we should restrict our localisation sets
and informations only to our customers. The idea of Linux is a
free and open system with free informations for everybody.
We also know that very "smart-shoppers" use these ressources
to set up their self imported devices (about 700 downloads
monthly for the manual). But we also see that a lot of customers
choose us or StreamlineCPUs because of this.
To say it clear: Every user is free to use our ressources. But only
we (TRIsoft) and our US partner (StreamlineCPUs) are allowed
to deliver it with their devices.

///TRIsoft

Marc Stephan

what about not going through some third party. we should look into buying directly from sharp.

http://sharp-world.com/support/index.html

we should have enough buying power to buy a lot directly from sharp.

anyone here have a business or store they own so we can have an actual company contacting sharp and enquiring about purchases? i am not competely sure what work it would entitle going through sharp, but it is worth looking into. in about a month or less i will be looking into buying either a 6000 or a 3000, and if we can get a good deal it will be worth looking into.

First off SHARP will not sell to a U.S supplier because they are not in the market of PDA's here. Also if they were Sharp only deals on teh distributor level here in the U.S unless there are special circumstances. Also Sharp requires minimum orders meaning many at a time (200 or so) at least in the U.S The problem with doing this is lets say Sharp comes out with a new model that everyone wants to go with now someone is stuck with all the old model and the only way to get rid of it is to lower the price normally for a lot less then they paid. Although it is a nice thought it would take a lot fo buying power to happen and it would have to be done in Japan as you cant buy htese in the U.S anymore hope this helps.

I'd like second what Trisoft are telling. They have been very supportive to the OZ/Opie developer team and I'm glad we have such a distributor here in germany.

Speaking about support... you have a C3000 too much? (just kidding)

I think there are several ways of looking at this.

If you want it to work out of the box, and need at least some hand-holding, you'd better buy from the specialist localisation distributor who offers a good warranty.

If you're the kind of person who's going to delve into the unit and re-flash it etc, then you could save money and buy it from the cheapest exporter from Jp... BUT, if you're going to be re-flashing it and other adventurous experiments, there's a chance you'll "brick" the device and spend more money getting it fixed than you would had you bought it from localised specialised distributor.

The thing is, if you save the money when you buy it, you'll always worry. Another local distributor - shirtpocket in the UK - can't support items they didn't sell..
If you pay the extra, the excitement of having a shiny new Z will make you forget the extra price, and the lack of fear over problems will help you enjoy it more!

Does the Dynamism localization of the C3000 completely remove the Japanese support? In particular does the Japanese dictionary remain? I can't seem to find detailed information on what each aftermarket supplier does as far as localization.

Just a quickie - as I'm using the trisoft localisation rom I'd just like to say thanks and Vielen danke (spelling could be off there My german is rusty) :-)
Amazing attitude and great support site. Sorry I didn't give you any money

Plus if you buy direct from japan and have existing zaurus you can use your existing power supply. Or buy travel kit from addonsworld.com - cheaper than the japanese convertor and gives you car, worldwide mains and usb charging from laptops, pcs etc all for under £20.