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Walter S. Mossberg
A year ago the market for handheld computers was pretty simple. Palm Computing, which had brought the category its first success, dominated with its line of PalmPilot products, even though the Silicon Valley startup had been swallowed twice by bigger fish, first by the modem maker U.S. Robotics and then by the networking giant 3Com. Meanwhile, Microsoft and several hardware partners had brought out clunky, complex and lackluster Pilot clones based on the company's stripped-down Windows CE operating system.Since then, a lot has happened. Palm still leads, and it has some flashy new models, but it's weaker. Microsoft, as always, has learned from its mistakes and is upping the ante, but not enough -- yet. And a dark horse, a startup named Handspring, is toiling away on a mysterious new type of handheld.Through it all, prices for top models have risen or held firm.Palm's new weakness stems from business developments. Last year the company's much admired founders, the parents of the PalmPilot, quit. Jeff Hawkins,the technical genius who invented the Pilot, and Donna Dubinsky, the business brain behind Palm, walked out because they felt that conservative 3Com, which knew little about their business, was the wrong corporation for a product that was still being refined and seeking a mass market in the teeth of fierce competition from Microsoft.
The pair founded the secretive Handspring, which is working on a new generation of handhelds initially based on the proven Palm operating system that Hawkins invented but 3Com now owns. Meanwhile, they left behind at 3Com two exciting Pilot models, which are being rolled out this year: the sleek Palm V and the radical Palm VII, which boasts a built-in wireless connection to the Internet.
But it isn't clear that 3Com has anything sexy in the pipeline to follow this Hawkins-Dubinsky legacy. Luckily for the company, the first new model it inherited was the Palm V. Its insides are essentially identical to those of the older Palm III. Like every Palm handheld before it, the Palm Vcan hold years of appointments and thousands of contacts, as well as memos and to-do lists, and it can seamlessly synchronize all this data with a PC.But it's what's on the outside that has made the Palm V such a hot seller since its introduction in February - so hot that it's hard to find one, despite its $450 price, 50 percent greater than the Palm III's. While the III was already small, the Palm V is only about half as thick and heavy, and its casing is a polished anodized aluminum with recessed buttons. Even more important, the Palm V has a new screen that is by far the sharpest and brightest on any Palm model. That's such a welcome improvement in what has been the device's weakest feature that it's worth the extra price, to me, all by itself. There are some minor downsides to the Palm V, in addition to price. For one, it can't use any of the accessories that fit earlier models. And it uses a rechargeable battery that lasts only about 21 hours between charges, roughly half as long as the Palm III'sdisposable AAA alkalines. Palm will continue to sell the Palm III. It has also brought out a beefier version the same size, the IIIx, which costs $370 and has two new features: twice the memory of a Palm III or V, and a new, better screen than the Palm III's. Still, it's different from, and inferior to, the one on the Palm V.But the biggest departure from Palm's past is due out later this year. It's called the Palm VII, and what makes it special is a built-in antenna that can receive Internet data and allow users to send and receive brief e-mails over a wireless network.
Few details of the Palm VII have been made public, and field trials are just beginning in anticipation of the product's release. But here's how it will work.
Users will get a selection of content providers built into the device and will be able to download others. Most of the time, the Palm VII won't be actively connected to its network, but it will still perform all the functions of its predecessors. Once a user connects to the wirelessnetwork, then he or she can get a customized download of stock quotes, news headlines, sports scores and so forth - plus waiting messages.
This is all accomplished with Palm's trademark reliability and ease of use. But there are two potential problems. One is that the downloaded data isn't in the form of complete, graphics-laden Web pages. Instead, the material is textual and is formatted for the handheld's small monochrome screen. Palm calls them "Web clippings." This makes great sense, but some users may expect more. The other issue is pricing. While the service will carry a relatively low monthly fee, there will be additional charges for quantities of text that exceed a preset limit.
So what's Microsoft doing to compete? The software giant and its hardware partners are still trying to get the basic device right, rather than preparing for wireless connectivity. But they are now in their second or third generation of Windows CE handhelds, and they are getting closer.Most of the Microsoft-based devices --made by Casio, Compaq, Philips and others -- are a bit larger than a Palm III. They have the same basic functions as today's Palm models, and they synchronize with PCs. Plus they have added features -- the ability to record audio notes, for instance, and color screens in the newest models.
The problem is the software. Although Windows CE was designed to run on gadgets with small screens, it still looks and works far too much like Windows, so the handhelds' screens are crammed with an unwieldy, awkward collection of menus, icons and so forth. And Windows CE doesn't synchronize as smoothly with a PC as does the Palm operating system. And what of Handspring? Two things are certain: the founders have a record of innovation that means Handspring's products will probably be cool. And they are determined to spread these devices to a much larger swath of the population.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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This story was printed from Net Express located at http://www.expressindia.com. Net Express provides a portal to India, with news from The Indian Express and The Financial Express along with sites on travel and tourism, the entertainment industry, the power sector, the environment and much more.
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