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So it comes as no great shock that the handheld pioneer, which just last week took up its old moniker after a couple of years as palmOne, has reduced the prices of two of its more popular handhelds at the same time as offering a rebate on one of its newest models, the Tungsten E2.

Consumers can now purchase the high-end Tungsten T5 and midrange Zire 72 for $50 less than they could a couple of days ago. The new prices are $350 for the T5 and $250 for the Zire 72. In addition to the price cuts and rebate, Palm Inc. is bundling extras with the devices to help lure customers.

Tungsten T5
Until the release of the LifeDrive Mobile Manager (read our review) this spring, the Tungsten T5 (see top image) was Palm's top-of-the-line handheld. Due to some performance issues, the Tungsten T5 earned a bad rap from customers, however. Palm finally fixed these problems with the release of a ROM update last month (see ROM Update Tackles Tungsten T5 Memory, Stability).

In addition to the price reduction, the company is offering a free Wi-Fi SD card with the purchase of a Tungsten T5.

For more on the handheld, see Review: Tungsten T5 - palmOne's Bold Guess.

Zire Z2
Released last spring, the consumer-friendly Zire 72 is a step up from 2003's Zire 71, the previous high-end Zire. It is targeted at young professionals who want both entertainment and business applications.


Zire 72

You get a free hardcase when buying a Zire 72.

For more on this PDA, see Review: palmOne Zire 72 All Business...And Fun.

Tungsten E2
Introduced in April, the Tungsten E2 is the follow-up to the most popular PDA of recent years, the over 2.5 million strong Tungsten E. Although the mid-range Tungsten E2 looks very similar to the earlier model, Palm added several important improvements, including: a faster processor, better screen, Bluetooth, and—like all the company's other recent devices—non-volitale memory capable of saving data in the event of a complete power drain.

Palm is offering a $50 mail-in rebate and a free MP3 kit to help lure folks to the Tungsten E2. Of course, to benefit from the rebate you need to be one of the usually small percentage of people who'll take the time to mail a rebate in.


Tungsten E2

For more on the Tungsten E2, see Review: Tungsten E2 - A Classic Palm Handheld.

PDAs Down, Smartphones Up
Research firm Canalys reported smart device (PDAs & smartphones combined) shipments grew by 82 percent year-over-year from first quarter 2004 to the same period this year. Former handheld star the PDA continued to decline with a 6 percent worldwide reduction in sales, while up-and-comer the smartphone grew deliveries by an astounding 137 percent.

PalmOne (now Palm), came in a distant second behind Nokia (50 percent market share) with 9.4 percent of worldwide smart device shipments—a mere 1 percent increase over the previous year. The mobile device pioneer's success rested soley with the popularity of its Treo series of smartphones (up 17 percent) and not its PDAs (down 27 percent).