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Vendors Enhance New Wireless Palm

Third-party applications will make PalmPilot VII a go-everywhere platform for Internet connectivity.

By Mike Hogan, PCWorld   

But last week's announcements of software and services supporting 3Com's new Palm VII means that soon you'll be able to use the wireless handheld to find an address or get up-to-the-minute reports on freeway conditions, while doing a little business, a little banking or maybe reading an e-mail or two.

This is just a partial list of the applications due to come online after 3Com completes field testing of its new $800 Palm VII sometime in the first half of 1999.

What began as just a very good personal digital assistant now has the inside track to become your go-everywhere Internet connection of choice.

"This announcement is a big step forward in what you can do with these devices," says Ron Rappaport, industry analyst for Zona Research. "Bringing wireless Internet access to the leading handheld will have a tremendous impact on what has been a struggling market segment."

The Yankee Group expects the still-nascent wireless market to grow to 7 million users next year and 21 million by 2002. But the marketplace is muddled by competing standards, points out Rappaport. With some 3 million of the Palm series devices sold so far, he figures that it has established itself as the best development platform around which vendors and Internet service providers can rally.

Web Clipping Rather Than Surfing

The Palm VII's integrated wireless modem with a built-in radio antenna will connect at a rather slow 8 kilobits per second, and the device lacks a browser so you can't surf the Internet at will. Instead, the Palm VII will rely upon content providers to create "query applications" that will retrieve sports, weather, stock prices--what have you. (More than 20 such applications were announced during the Worldwide Palm Developer's Conference in Santa Clara last week).

3Com calls this "Web clipping" because it involves sending a request for the minimum amount of information needed from a Web site, an amount that's commensurate with the limited memory and display available on the handheld device.

For example, at a week conference last week, 3Com's director of wireless devices, Joe Sipher, opened a beta of a Travelocity application on a Palm VII prototype. By using the Pilot stylus to tap in the names of two airports, he sent a query to the Travelocity Web site, producing a list of flights between those airports.

Passing Info While Passing Time

What else might you do with a Palm VII? You could find a street address complete with routing instructions on MapQuest or check on traffic patterns and problems on the Etak site. The Weather Channel will tell you all about that approaching hurricane or snowstorm; Fodor's will let you download a list of nice hotels and restaraunts where you can tie up until the storm blows over.

Business doesn't necessarily have to grind to a halt either. Bank of America will let you view your accounts and bank online, while Etrade will let you buy and sell securities away from home. You can even check on the status of important package shipments on the UPS site.

At a minimum, you'll be able to while away the time by downloading headlines from the Web sites of ABCNEWS.com, ESPN.com, USA Today, TheStreet.com or The Wall Street Journal to your Palm VII.

These are just some of the vendors who have announced early applications that can take advantage of this environment. Although many of these capabilities are already delivered in other ways, versions for the Palm VII depend on the outcome of the handheld's field tests, which the company hopes will be completed during the first half of 1999.

Palm vs. Windows CE

One of the knocks on the Palm has been that it is not natively connected to popular desktop applications, as are Windows CE-based Palm-size devices like the Philips Nino. But 3Com has taken pains to develop hot-synch connections to most popular applications, and DataViz announced its $40 Documents to Go synchronization application, which lets files from the popular Microsoft Office, Lotus SmartSuite and Corel WordPerfect Suite be viewed on the very different display of the Palm VII.

For its part, Microsoft says it is relying on third-party hardware and software vendors to fill in the blanks for Palm-size devices utilizing Windows CE. However, says Microsoft Group Manager Roger Gulrajani, the WirelessKnowledge, LLC joint venture Microsoft launched last month with wireless phone maker Qualcomm should eventually result in a micro-browser and wireless capability for Palm-size devices, although its initial focus will be on corporate networks.