Speaking to finanical analysts last month Palm boss Carl Yankowski admitted that much of his surplus inventory could be destined for landfill. Palm didn't anticipate the slump in the PDA business, and exacerbated the problem by announcing its most significant upgrade for five years before it was able to stock the channel with the new kit.

But fortunately, Palm is finding more ecologically friendly ways of disposing of the surplus. SAP developers attending the SAPPHIRE 2001 developer conference in Orange County, Florida* this week get a free wireless-enabled Palm VIIx, plus a free month's subscription to Palm.net.

That's a sweeter deal than the one Palm announced on Monday for European developers, who receive 40 per cent off the retail price of Palm PDAs until the end of August.

Details of the SAP offer are available here.

Of course it doesn't make much sense going specially for the freebie - day rates for today and tomorrow are $1,200 each. But it does sweeten some of the pain of being a SAP developer, and of being sent to Orange County*. A fate we wouldn't wish on anyone. ®

* Reg doh: And not Orange County, California as we said yesterday. Apologies. We couldn't see for the fog, here...

Related Stories

Palm brings cheaper PDAs to European developers
SonicBlue at loggerheads with Psion over PDA stockpile