Re:I just don't get it (Score 1)

Palm has been around long enough that most people should recognize the marketing trend.

The PDA market is based on the idea of disposable computers. There are two kinds of consumers, the geeks like us and the mundanes. The geeks always want the coolest, newest thing, and will upgrade regularly. Of course, since PDAs are relatively dead-end disposables, "upgrade" means "buy a new one". The mundanes don't really know what they want, so they'll generally opt for the cheapest thing.

Palm respins its offerings every 9 to 18 months. The OS increments to make people think they're getting something new.

The new $99 thing is about the same as the old $149 dollar thing, except it's missing some key feature that all the geeks say is vital (What do you mean the m100 serial port is different and it doesn't have a cradle?), and includes some feature the geeks think is for wimps (Detachable faceplates?) but the mundanes always eat it up.

The new $149 thing is pretty much the old $249 thing.

The new $249 thing is pretty much the old $349 thing.

The new $349 thing has all the features that worked well in the old $399 thing, and none of the stuff the flopped.

The latest and greatest thing that all the geeks are salivating over is still $399, but now it has wireless / bluetooth / color / card slot / more ram / bigger flash / integrated cellphone / a faster processor / whatever.

The typical consumer will pick a price point they think is reasonable, and replace their PDA when they think theirs is outmoded. Replacements come at a pace that makes the geekiest consumers happy. Hardware is just similar enough that most old software runs, but just different enough that the consumer thinks they're getting something hot and new.

This formula has worked well for them, and should surprise no one who's been watching the market.