You now have yourself a rough estimate of total cost of ownership. Just remember the simple approach: for us and for millions of other users, TCO is somewhere between $150 and $400 per person, which is substantially less than it costs to buy a TiVo to record your TV programs in your living room.

Total cost vs. total cost
As we were completing this analysis, Managing Editor Denise Amrich pointed out that if you're really talking about your actual total cost of ownership, you need to factor in your ROI. In other words, it might cost, say, $500 overall to buy a Palm handheld and all the trimmings. This is what most accountants would call the "Total Cost of Ownership". Yet the real total is what you get when you add up the costs and then factor in the ROI. Overall, in most cases, I think you'll find that your TCO when purchasing Palm handhelds isn't actually a cost at all. That is, Palm handhelds really should be treated as investments in your business, and not as non-recoverable costs. Put more simply: if you buy these things, you'll probably wind up saving money. And that goes straight to your bottom line.

Finally, make sure you read the two ROI stories that are also in this issue. They'll help you get the most out of your investment.

David Gewirtz is the author of How To Save Jobs and Where Have All The Emails Gone? For more than 20 years, he has analyzed current, historical, and emerging issues relating to technology, competitiveness, and policy. David is the Editor-in-Chief of the ZATZ magazines, is the Cyberterrorism Advisor for the International Association for Counterterrorism and Security Professionals, and is a member of the instructional faculty at the University of California, Berkeley extension. He can be reached at david@zatz.com and you can follow him at http://www.twitter.com/DavidGewirtz.