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Subject: Re: Have Novag & Saitek blown it ??

Author: Alastair Scott

Date: 01:25:47 05/31/02

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On May 30, 2002 at 09:01:44, bryan whitby wrote:

>With the excellent chess programs now available for the Pocket PC and Palms,
>have Novag and Saitek both blown it by releasing monochrome touch screen chess
>computers or will the price facture save them ?

To give a reasonably non-partisan opinion :)

I think the Internet made dedicated computers obsolete.

This shows, as they've struggled for years with a lack of new concepts and
endless variations on the same core programs; to be frank I'm surprised Novag
and Saitek haven't gone under or at least stopped making new machines. Now no
computer is an island, entire in itself, and the connected PC enormously expands
what you could do with chess at little extra marginal cost; I assert that most
dedicated computer owners, at the time when the tide turned, already had a PC.

The dedicated handhelds are a brave try but, really, will only sell on
ignorance; the older Handsprings are almost being given away in cornflakes
packets here and, as has been pointed out, there are rafts of used PDAs on sale
in forums such as eBay and Loot - I've sold a couple myself that way with great
ease, getting a considerable number of bids for each sale.

I'm pretty sure anyone knowing that a better solution all round* exists for less
than £20 extra if they have a PDA, and possibly less than £100 in total if they
don't, would not hesitate to go that way.

Alastair

*better user interface, greater playing strength, ability to save games,
possibility of upgrades ...



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