Sree's Thoughts on Tech on the Cheap
Thursday, Nov. 21, 2002

Those of you familiar with my work know how bullish i am on technology. While I don't believe it is perfect, I think technology and high-tech products tend to constantly get better, faster, cheaper. It's that third element I want to touch upon.

Thanks to a sluggish economy, a glut of inventory and the fact that most consumers aren't rushing out to buy new pieces of technology, prices on almost all gadget and computers are coming down drastically. We are seeing brand-name $500 desktops and $700 laptops and flat-panel monitors that are now under $300. I paid $2,500 for my laptop three years ago. Today, the same company will sell me one for $1,000 that's at least three time more powerful. Some of these computers will not probably be adequate as your only home computer, but they should work well as a second PC or one of for the kids (or the parents, depending on who's doing more sophisticated things with the machine).

One of the most dramatic price drops has been in the realm of PDAs, or personal digital assistants. I ws an early adopter and I bought a Palm Pilot and then a Palm IIIc for $300-$400 each. Now, Palm is out with the Zire (pronounced as in the last part of "desire" - get it?), a PDA that costs just $99. This white-encased Palm has only 2MB of memory and doesn't compare well to the most advanced models, but it's a great device for someone who has considered trading in his or her Filofax for a Palm. It stores thousands of addresses and appointments and runs the Palm software applications that made the original, more expensive devices such a hit.

For those more interested in the Pocket PC handhelds, which have typically run $400 and up, Dell has introduced a $199 device called the Axim X5.

This year, it looks like Santa is looking out for consumers.

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