Anyone see this? Dell halts PDA development

[kimh]

May just be a rumor...

Dell apparently halted R&D development of PDA products since the middle of 2005, when Dell's Taiwan Design Center (TDC) completed development of the PC vendor's last Axim-series device, which was manufactured by High Tech Computer (HTC), according to market sources.

According to the sources, Dell's TDC switched all PDA-related R&D resources to the notebook segment in the middle of 2005, following the company's plan of reducing the number of its R&D staff at its handheld device division at the end of 2004.

http://www.tgdaily.com/2006/08/02/dell_pda_development/

[Frenchy]

That's not too good but was expected as nothing has been out since the X51v over a year ago.

[Duke_Box]

No it's true.. as i posted it before on other threads.

[segadc]

Well maybe they make huge price custs so they can sell out there remaining inventory.

[kulnet]

Yeah, I read this over on Geek a few minutes ago. I'm really not surprised...

[AdamaDBrown]

If they moved PDA R&D to the laptop division, they didn't shut it down, did they?

And the X51v was only released about ten months ago, not over a year.

[dbman]

Looking at most of the PDAs on the market, they are all the same, with simple variations on design. It does not take a researcher to decide that a PDA should have WM5, 128MB of RAM, a square display, built-in Bluetooth and a long life battery. Sales departments pick features like these, engineers formalize the specs, if necessary and find ways to get it built. Companies do not need R&D for mundane tasks like this.

HTC already builds most PDAs and has a core of good engineers. Any company wanting to market their own device only has to provide specs to HTC and dicker over the cost and deadlines. I suspect that anyone wanting a Windows Mobile device only has to ask for one.

Now this does not mean that Dell can get by without R&D for advanced technologies, but it does mean that they can continue to market a line of PDAs for as long as they want and never spend a dollar on research.

[Howard2k]

I'm going to sticky this in the hope that more people will read this before posting their own links to the story in their own threads

[dennisma]

That is funny because I have abandon the Dell Axim as well.

I went to the "dark side" with an HP and am much happier.

[dvmed]

Good thinking H2K, but I saw 4 threads already and counting.

[Duke_Box]

HP will eventually stop there PDA development to. Small tablet pc's will be dell's next focus point.

[rlarson_mn]

Yes it will soon be all cell phones will be small pims and if you want a pda that does more than a phone then you will have to get a tablet pc.

[TripleTTTT]

Yes it will soon be all cell phones will be small pims and if you want a pda that does more than a phone then you will have to get a tablet pc.

PC Tablet sounds good.

[drax5]

PC Tablet sounds good.

If Dell does stop making the Axim, just curious to know what everyone will do for their next PDA? Who would you buy from? I personally want to keep my phone and PDA as seperate devices, but it looks like I'm losing out on that.

[ttriple]

That is funny because I have abandon the Dell Axim as well.

I went to the "dark side" with an HP and am much happier.

TRAITOR!!!! Let's get him!!!!!!!!!!!

just kidding...i like HP stuff too...i just got a HP laptop and I like their design as well as sturdy built, unlike Dell's notebooks.