While Sharp focuses on the Mobilon
line as it's new flagship hand held, what happens to the Zaurus? Here is how I see it.
Back in October when the Mobilon was first announced, Sharp reassured all that the Zaurus line would still "be supported". And that made sense. After all, the Zaurus was a leading K-PDA and the Mobilon was an HPC running Windows CE 2.0, thought to be brought onboard to compete with a growing number of Windows CE machines. Coexistence did not seem too farfetched at the time. After all, with Sharp holding much of the palmtop and handheld market share, it only made sense to continue with the Zaurus line, at least until Windows CE grew in acceptance. With an almost cult like following the Zaurus seemed to be in an enviable position.
Resistance is Futile
But one by one the warning signs of pending doom began to crop up for the Zaurus line. The flagship ZR-5800, discontinued in Radio Shacks, and being sold for as little as $89.00 at On Sale (an Internet Auction Site). Also some locations that supported the Zaurus are scaling back or discontinuing support altogether.
Is that all there is
So where does that leave the typical Zaurus user? Well, if you think about it, we never really needed much support. Besides Rupp (who supplies the majority of the third party software for the Zaurus, and who provides most of our support), we learned not to expect much. Luckily, the Zaurus ships with most of the needed functionality built in, so things like e-mail and linking are all that's really needed and Rupp has done well in that area. So in the grand scheme of things, I can imagine holding onto my Zaurus a few years (if I choose to do so) with no problem. Discontinued or not. So, in light of all the warning signs, I say "bring it on"!