Any News For The Next Zaurus?

[bam]

time for me to pick up a few 1000's and another 3100.

[Ragnorok]

Sharp w-zero3 on akihabaranews

- If it's Winbloze it's garbage. Here's crossing my fingers that Sharp is just pulling MickeySawft's chain with this deal, in that they know it'll flop on such painfully slow hardware, and the Japanese folks will see how horribly resrictive Winbloze is and stay away in droves.  I've never figured out how supporting a known losing venture generates revenue, but I know it can be done, and I really hope it's happening with this.
- Then again, Sharp could just release it in the US and people would probably fall all over themselves to get one.  (sardonic grin)  Based on what's available in stores here, the average US consumer doesn't care one whit about power or flexability as long as it looks cool and plays music.
- Maybe I'm jaded.  I have a Z because of what it is.  That fact that it looks cool and plays music is just icing on the cake!  (wolfish grin)

[leskimo]

Press release, I think.,
http://www.sharp.co.jp/corporate/news/051020-a.html

Translation anyone?

[Leinadmx]

Press release, I think.,
http://www.sharp.co.jp/corporate/news/051020-a.html

Translation anyone?
[div align=\"right\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

Well in google I got this:
[a href=\"http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sharp.co.jp%2Fcorporate%2Fnews%2F051020-a.html&langpair=ja%7Cen&hl=es&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&prev=%2Flanguage_tools]http://translate.google.com/translate?u=ht...Flanguage_tools[/url]

Why Sharp do this???
My god, always Micro$oft !!    

The link if the New product is:
http://www.sharp.co.jp/ws/special/

I have to accept "it is a very good device"    

What this mean??
Could this be the end of the "Sharp + Linux = Zaurus" history    
This was the worse news today.

Last year (November) we sow the SL-C3000 and I though that this November we could wet a new Zaurus but... it seems that what we will see is a new Micro$oft product.

I pray for a miracle and see a new Zaurus again    
Best regards

[cesarcardoso]

Why Sharp do this???
My god, always Micro$oft !!   

Maybe because...
1) It's easy to OEM a Windows Mobile device. There are tons of designs at HTC, and if you don't like HTC there are lots of OEM shops at Taiwan offering WM devices
(BTW, Microsoft made a good job of getting Taiwanese OEM shops to support WM)
2) In the smartphone market, with the notable exception of Palm (and some small manufacturers), if you don't get WM you must get Symbian. And competing with the behemouth Nokia in its own home ground isn't for the faint of heart (hello Sony Ericsson!)

[chiark]

I wouldn't say "it's garbage" or get too carried away with the Microsoft bashing.  WM5, for what it is, isn't terrible.  It's a PDA OS that abstracts complexity away from the user, and it works well if you like that sort of hand holding.

It will not appeal to anyone who likes the Z, of that I am fairly sure, however to write it off as garbage is being a little unfair.  It has little or no appeal to us, but it is a fairly slick and polished OS.

I just hope Sharp see the consternation it's causing and put out a press release about the Zaurus line soon.  I guess Japanese Z fans might be a bit worried by this too: does anyone have any news from the ground there?

[dhns]

Why Sharp do this???

I think there is a Sharp Communication Systems group and a Sharp Information Systems group (with Personal Mobile Tools subdivision). And they might work pretty independently.

http://sharp-world.com/corporate/info/ci/pdf/organ.pdf

-- hns

[zmiq2]

Uhm.... certainly the move to windows-mobile will allow sharp to ship the product world-wide, since microsoft will be doing the support (of course via $$). I'm certainly worried that, if given a modest success, it will mean the death for zaurus line.

Time to look for alternatives like archos, oqo, ....

Trisoft: any comments ?

[speculatrix]

maybe we can hope that Sharp will do what Olympus do, and release the machine so it can be both wince and linux?

[TRIsoft]

Hi everybody,

Trisoft: any comments ?

oops, we're really wondering why this W-ZERO3 causes so
much concerns here.

It's a Smartphone, not a Zaurus. Also SHARP was selling
WindowsCE devices before (the HC-4600 for example). They are
a big japanese manufacturer and produce everything that
the market or the OEM customers demands.

As you all know, we turned into a 100%-Zaurus-company
the last three years. If SHARP would be going to drop the
Zaurus line, we would be _VERY_ concerned. But we're not,
and we don't see a reason to be worried.

We've seen two new models this year (SL-C1000 and 3100)
and we have to spend a lot of money for CE/EMV etc on each
new model. We really hope that we don't have to handle a 3rd
new model this year.
For our personal opinion, we would be glad if SHARP could stay
for at least 12 months with one model.

If we can get the W-ZERO3 with an english OS, we will try it out
and have a closer look at it (but even if so, it's a PHS device, so
you wouldn't have much fun outside of Japan)...

///TRIsoft

Marc Stephan

[chiark]

We don't need common sense posts like that...  We want leaping to wrong conclusions and assuming the worst!

[tg]

Hi everybody,

Trisoft: any comments ?

oops, we're really wondering why this W-ZERO3 causes so
much concerns here.

It's a Smartphone, not a Zaurus. Also SHARP was selling
WindowsCE devices before (the HC-4600 for example). They are
a big japanese manufacturer and produce everything that
the market or the OEM customers demands.

As you all know, we turned into a 100%-Zaurus-company
the last three years. If SHARP would be going to drop the
Zaurus line, we would be _VERY_ concerned. But we're not,
and we don't see a reason to be worried.

We've seen two new models this year (SL-C1000 and 3100)
and we have to spend a lot of money for CE/EMV etc on each
new model. We really hope that we don't have to handle a 3rd
new model this year.
For our personal opinion, we would be glad if SHARP could stay
for at least 12 months with one model.

If we can get the W-ZERO3 with an english OS, we will try it out
and have a closer look at it (but even if so, it's a PHS device, so
you wouldn't have much fun outside of Japan)...

///TRIsoft

Marc Stephan
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Thanks for those reassuring words - it's great to see you are so confident about zaurus. I think few of us (me for sure) freaked out as we saw a device getting released which had several nice features that were on our wish list (ie I don't see why next or some future version of zaurus could not also be a smartphone etc).
But at this point I am just happy to see you think zaurus line is here to stay
(although I also disagree with you that we dont' need more than one a year :>>> - but I understand from your point of view it must be somewhat of a headache).

[tg]

We don't need common sense posts like that...  We want leaping to wrong conclusions and assuming the worst!
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=100348\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

Yes - and also if many of us would follow pessimistic assumptions trisoft zaurus inventory would be gone overnight as everyone would run to grab a few z's while they are still available? Now that I think about it I dont' see why trisoft would not want to encourage this line of thinking as they could retire overnight ;>

[chiark]

LOL, I expect a "Ohmigosh, *correction* PANIC BUY NOW!" message from trisoft any minute  .
BTW, I was just as guilty of having bad thoughts about this, but Trisoft's post does make sense

[gr8ful]

Thanks Marc (TRIsoft), your comments kept some from being put on blood pressure medicine.  I personally think the Zaurus will be around for quite a while.

It is obvious that the traditional PDA is dead and is being swallowed up by smartphones.  However, I see the Zaurus as an important device serving those who need near laptop capability but ultimate portability.

I think in the next few years we will have 4 clearly distinct markets: 1) desktops  2) laptops  3) smartphones  4) palmtops capable of replacing your laptop without sacrificing a lot of functionality (Zaurus).

The Zaurus will continue to be improved to fill this tweener category - PDA on steroids or laptop on Slimfast?