Palm Cuts Prices for the Tungsten T, m515, m130

As expected, Palm Inc. has dropped the price of the Tungsten T by $100, a 20% decrease. It's now available on the Palm Store for $399. In addition, it has cut prices for two other handhelds.

Palm has also reduced the prices for the m515 and m130 by $50. The m515 is now selling for $299 and the m130 is available for $199. Both of these models were introduced in March of last year and it's likely that Palm is close to discontinuing them.

Yesterday, several retailers, like Amazon and Staples, reduced their prices for these handhelds, jumping the gun on Palm a bit.

Marlene Somsak, vice president communications for Palm, said these price cuts are intended to spur demand. Winter has historically been the slowest time of year for handheld sales.

Palm is also offering free shipping on all three of these models.

About These Models

The Tungsten T runs Palm OS 5 on a 144 MHz Texas Instruments OMAP processor. It has 16MB of RAM, of which 15 MB is user accessible. It has a 320 by 320 pixel color screen and a unique sliding mechanism that hides or exposes the Graffiti area.

Internally, the m515 and m130 are quite similar. Both run Palm OS 4.1 on 33 MHz Dragonball processors. They also both has SD/MMC slots for storing files and applications. However, the m515 has 16 MB of RAM, while the m130 has 8 MB.

Externally, they are very different. The m130 is significantly larger and has been designed to appeal to younger consumers. The m515 has a more executive look. Both, however, use 160 by 160 color screens, though the m515's can display more colors.

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