At first glance, the most notable difference between the Palm III and its predecessor, the PalmPilot, is the more rugged and streamlined case.

The LCD screen also has an electroluminescent backlight that can be turned on or off by holding the power button down for three seconds to allow for easier viewing in dark areas.

The Palm III had the OS ROM and RAM mounted on a memory card separate from the motherboard.

In year 2000, Kodak released The PalmPix, a digital camera with an image display on the screen for the Palm Handheld.

The Palm III's main competition were Palm-size PCs running Microsoft's Windows CE.