Hi,

> My friend will try to buy either an I-CRUISE or an MI-C1 model in the 
> Akihabara electronics discount area of Tokyo.

  Wow!

> Yoshiki san, since my friend tells me that I'll probably get a lower 
> price if I pay cash for the Zaurus in Akihabara, can you advise me on 
> how much cash to send with him? Looking on Sharp's Japanese home 
> page, the normal retail price for the I-CRUISE is 160,000 yen. Do you 
> think that my friend can buy the I-CRUISE cheaper than this in 
> Akihabara? Or should I plan on giving him 160,000 yen to take to 
> Japan? Is it really true that my friend can get a lower price in 
> Akihabara by paying cash?

  Definitely you can get a lower price in Akihabara,
regardless the way of paying.  The "street prices" (Thank
you, John Duncan) of the most of electric products are lower
than the list prices, and I think current "Akihabara price"
of an ICRUISE is 110,000 yen - 120,000 yen.

  Howver, you have to pay 5% sales tax, and you might have
to pay some percent of commission if you're going to pay by
a credit card.

## Yes, people in Japan prefer the cash over the credit cards:
## it is pretty common that people carry 300,000 yen or more to
## Akihabara and buy things by cash.

  You could get even much lower price for the used ones at
Yahoo auction or something like that.  (it could be around
70,000 yen or less, but I'm not sure.)

  I recommend you get the optional digital camera.  CE-AG05
for ICRUISE or CE-AG06 for MI-C1.  The camera makes
Squeaking more funny.  You might also want to have the
optional keyboard (CE-KB1), though it is not my high
recommendation.

> Also, it seems that the I-CRUISE and the MI-C1 have similar features, 
> except that the I-CRUISE has 15MB available user memory and the MI-C1 
> has only 7MB. Is the display size and resolution the same for both of 
> these models?

  The user memory you are saying is the flash memory: it is
just the secondary and you can expand it by the external
flash cards.  (The "DRAM" size is 8MB and the same on both
machines).  The display resolution of the ICRUISE is 640x480
(in 4 inch diagonal display).  This much resolution makes
ICRUISE unique.  The display resolution of MI-C1 is 320x240
small, but the LCD is reflective: you can see the screen
under the sun light.

> Is there any advantage to buying the I-CRUISE (compared with the 
> MI-C1) except for getting more user memory?

  The higher display resolution and double CPU power.  It
enables writing programs for a small extent.  I can say that
it is funny to see the people's first impression when they
see the VGA screen on a PDA:-)

  However, the body of the ICRUISE is a bit too big.  The
body of MI-C1 fits the pockets and it is also a surprise.

  Hope this helps,

  -- Yoshiki