Handspring's somewhat inelegant solution is a snap-on device that turns its Visor organizer into a GSM phone. The VisorPhone is not pretty, but its functions are integrated so you can, say, dial people in your address book with the touch of the stylus. But convergence doesn't come cheap. The tri-band GSM device will sport a color screen larger than a cellphone's but smaller than those on most PDAs today. It will also support GPRS, meaning it will be able to transmit data at 56 Kbps, instead of the current 9.6 Kbps-14.4 Kbps available on mobile phones.
Palm is no stranger to the hybrid market itself.
It licenses its technology to several other phone-makers. But so far, the fruits of those deals have been unimpressive. This is the first joint development effort between the two gadget giants. No doubt, they will have more company soon. The flash memory used by most MP3 players for storing music should be called cash memory instead.