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Palm VII Goes Wireless

3Com expects to ship $800 handheld unit in late 1999, stocked with online services and software.

By James Niccolai, IDG News   

The device follows the same familiar form factor as existing Palm units, adding a wireless modem and a short folding aerial on the side that also acts as an "on" switch. Company executives at a launch event described the Palm VII as a "revolutionary" leap forward over existing Palm products.

"This is a very important day for us," said Janice Roberts, senior vice president with 3Com. "We are going to change the way people access and use the Internet forever."

3Com expects to release the Palm VII in the United States in late 1999 after field trials, which are scheduled to start in early 1999. Its $800 price tag makes it twice as expensive as the current Palm III.

Communication at a Price

The company has teamed with the wireless division of telecommunications provider Bell South to offer a bundled Internet access service starting at less than $10 per month, said Joe Sipher, director of wireless products at 3Com. The service will be available in 260 of the most highly populated areas in the United States, he said.

One analyst was impressed by a demonstration of the unit's wireless capabilities, and said he would "snap one up in a minute."

But the $800 price tag may too high for many consumers, added Larry Perlstein, principal analyst with Dataquest. It could even provide a window for Microsoft to gain some market share with its palm-size PC design if Microsoft releases a version with similar wireless capabilities, he said.

"I would prefer to have seen them bring it in at under $500, and maybe even take a loss for a while to shore up some customers," Perlstein said.

Palm III users hoping to upgrade to the new model will be disappointed.

"Physically, the Palm III can not be upgraded to the Palm VII," Sipher said.

Content Too Limited?

The Palm VII's wireless modem supports connection speeds up to 8 kbps--compared with 56 kbps for many desktop PCs--and the unit contains no browser, so users can't surf the Web. Instead, the Palm VII provides "query applications" from some 20 content-provider partners. These applications give users access to sports, weather, stock prices, and other information.

In a demonstration, 3Com's Sipher opened the Travelocity application, producing a query form stored locally in the system. He entered the names of two airports and clicked Enter using the pen input device. That sent a wireless signal out to the Travelocity Web site, and moments later a list of flights between the two airports appeared on screen.

3Com dubs this method of Internet access "Web clipping," because it involves sending and extracting only the minimum amount of information needed from a Web site.

Perlstein said 3Com's content partners might not supply the breadth of Internet content users will want.

Among the early partners are Moviefone, which will provide access to show times and listings; online financial publication TheStreet.com; GeoSystems, which offers driving directions; and Etak, which provides information on road conditions.

3Com also announced an aggressive developer program, including tools and services, so that other content providers can make their material available to Palm VII users.

Strength in Messaging

The Palm VII sends and receives e-mail messages using an application called iMessenger. To keep bandwidth requirements to a minimum, the Palm VII will initially download only the first 500 characters of a message, then give users the option to retrieve the rest, Sipher said.

"We don't expect this to be an e-mail machine. It is too small and it doesn't have a keyboard. But it is a great messaging machine, and that is how we expect people to use it," he said.

Like its predecessors, the Palm VII includes infrared capabilities so that it can communicate with other nearby Palm devices. The unit also comes with a range of productivity applications, including a utility to sync data with a PC. The device has 2MB of RAM--the same as the Palm III. It offers "weeks of battery life," although not as much as the current Palm III, Sipher said.

3Com officials said they are building versions of the Palm VII for Asian and European users, but the company declined to estimate when such versions will be available. Overseas users will have to wait until the company strikes partnerships with wireless service providers in other countries.