As I covered in last week's podcast, the specs on the new Palm devices were no surprise. We all knew the Z22 and TX were coming. There were a few surprises, like the jaw-dropping price of the TX, but on the whole we knew what we were getting ahead of time.

What I want to talk about this week is less the specifics of the new Palms as what they represent. I've talked about Palm's revolutionary products and their plans to unveil something as groundbreaking as the original Pilot and the original Treo. But Palm's real money is in evolutionary devices.

The most frequent comment I've held from the handheld technorati about the new TX is that it's a great device, but it should have come out two years ago. The conventional "wisdom" is that while a dual wireless device with 100MB of RAM and a bright HVGA screen is nice, it's not innovative. Too little, too late.

Wrong.

What the technorati don't get is that Palm intentionally avoids bleeding edge technology. Palm is mostly about refinements. They're about about making devices that actually solve problem rather than collecting trendy bullet points. Like Apple, they're about devices that "just work."

I understand the frustration of the technorati. They want bling. They want shiny. They want the latest and greatest. They want the Ferrari of handhelds.

Trouble is, Palm makes Toyotas.

Palm knows that midrange, relatively conservative and most importantly, reliable handhelds are where the money is. Consider the following. There used to be three companies making handhelds with new, bleeding edge technology.

Toshiba made devices that were at times thinner, faster or higher resolution than anything else on the market. Their Pocket PC designs were as fresh and different as Microsoft would allow. And yet, they were never able to build any significant market share. They no longer make handhelds.

Sony was even more innovative than Toshiba. With more leeway in designs due to looser standards from Palm, Sony constantly pushed the envelope with new sizes and shapes for handhelds. They threw in new technologies just because they could. Other than one model sold only in Japan, Sony no longer makes handhelds.

HP still makes handhelds, but they're learning a hard lesson. For years, HP's high-end iPAQs have been dogs at both the cash register and the tech counter. The h5000 and hx4700 series iPAQs have been plagued with reliability issues and have sold poorly. When HP updated their iPAQ line recently, an updated hx4700 was not included and the Windows Mobile 5.0 update to the existing model has been significantly delayed.

Palm is a business. Like any business, they aim to make money. And the sad truth for the technorati is that übergeek devices just don't sell in significant numbers, enough to make a tidy profit after paying for the costs to design and manufacture the device. While Ferrari can charge ten time more than a Toyota for a super sports car, no one is going to pay $3,000 for a handheld no matter how good it is.

Which brings me to the Palm TX. The TX is dual wireless done right and at the right price. At $299, this device offers more bang for the buck than Dell, and it's also easier to configure. It takes time to perfect technology, and Palms lack the rough edges you see in so many Pocket PCs. This device should have been out two years ago? Impossible. Palm could made a device with the TX's specs two years ago (it's not dissimilar to the Euro version of Sony's TH-55), but it ain't about specs. They couldn't have made it this trouble-free two years ago, and the couldn't sell it for $299 and make any money with it.

Let's look at Palm's other new model. The Z22 may not look like much to the schooled PDA expert, but that's precisely the point. The Z22 is as simple as can be. It is small, beautifully-designed and has everything it needs. It doesn't lose data thanks to NVFS, it includes easy calendar, contacts, shopping list and color photos. It runs seemingly forever on a charge. And it weighs less than four ounces, disappearing into a pocket or purse.

The Z22 may be nothing special to us, but it is absolutely perfect for people that haven't used a PDA before, or tried one and found it too complicated. New users. New money. There's a limit to how much you can make selling to the same gadget geeks over and over again. The Z22 is just right for taking a piece out of that $1.1B (that's billion with a B) paper planner market. New users. New money. Don't be surprised next year to hear the Z22 called the best-selling PDA ever. Ever.

There's a reason why you see more Toyotas than Ferraris on the road. There's a reason why Sony and Toshiba don't make handhelds anymore. There's a reason why Palm is profitable and doing well enough to try something revolutionary again. Palm knows that the technorati want, but they also know what people actually buy.