However, the Palm m100 didn't come in under that all important $100 price point. With a double-digit price of $99, suddenly it has the potential to become an impulse buy. The new way the Zire is being packaged supports that idea. Instead of coming in an opaque box, the Zire will appear on store shelves in see-through, blister packaging like a G.I. Joe figure. This will help remove the intimidation factor of feeling like you're committing to a major purchase. The Zire is something Grandma could pick up on a whim for little Timmy's birthday.

The device is also being aimed at soccer moms, with such marketing lines as, "Move over, Crazed Suburban Super Mom, the Palm Zire handheld is the chic alternative to chore lists and calendars." They're whipping up a buzz about baking with phrases like, "Become the digital equivalent of Betty Crocker and bring recipes you synced straight from the Internet and 'beam' them to your friends."

Last month in his editorial, PalmPower Editor-in-Chief, David Gewirtz, commented, "To be honest, I'm very hard pressed to recommend Palm-branded hardware right now, except at the very low end." At the time he wasn't referring specifically to the Zire, as the device was still but a rumor. However, he suggested that if Palm put its focus on Palm OS devices that retailed for under a hundred bucks, "they'd go gangbusters." The Zire appears to be an attempt to do just that. Whether or not they succeed in going gangbusters remains to be seen.

Contributing Editor Bob Draper is a technical writer at Westar Corporation's U.S. Army Dugway Proving Ground office. He's also a Green Bay Fan and a certified Mac addict. He can be reached at palmguy@mac.com.