Ron & Tom: General FYI article-- worth a brief glance re Palm Razor penetration on the way up.
Reminds me of the truth that when a 'Big Guy' is injured (MSFT)-- all sorts of things happen that under the old monopoly regime would have been much more questionable.
In fact it occurs to me that 90% of this high tech/internet/software market craze in the last 6 weeks has likely more to do with the market feel that monopoly stifling of innovation of the last decade is waning and the real start to innovation has just started--ie not just Linux --per se.
You get the feel that the market thinks that the sky is truly the limit-- not just the lower tropopause/troposphere as defined by our benevolent monopolist Bill G.
The Canadian Government should take note re the stratospheric amount of competition (?) in our airline sector in Canada. Of course the feds can count to one. Two would be a stretch-- three in the realm of the supernatural.....
Berst Alert
MONDAY, DECEMBER 13, 1999
Why Things Have Never Been Brighter for the Palm OS
Jesse Berst, Editorial Director
ZDNet AnchorDesk
For a long time, I believed the Palm platform would be crushed by Microsoft's WinCE. That Microsoft's marketing muscle would overcome Palm's first-mover advantage, the way Word overtook WordPerfect and Excel passed 1-2-3. Now it's clear the Palm platform will dominate the handheld space for the next two years at least.
Just over three million Palm units were sold in 1999, according to Jupiter Communications. And it's gaining momentum. Elsewhere in this issue, I've assembled a complete resource guide to everything Palm. Click for more. Meanwhile, here's why the Palm is gaining momentum.
WHY PALM HAS SOLIDIFIED ITS GRIP
Being spun off from slow-moving parent 3Com makes it faster, more flexible. Click for more
Critical mass of users (5 million-plus) gives it strength.
Most important -- 20,000-plus developers who can build the apps to attract the next 5 million users.
Archrival Win CE is losing partners and momentum. Click for more
Palm is gaining partners and momentum. Click for more
But if I had to pick a single event that pushed Palm over the top, it would be the appearance of the rival Visor products this fall. Because the Visor also runs the Palm OS, it validates the operating system as a platform others can build on.
WHAT'S NEXT?
Handspring's Visor should spur Palm out of its proprietary cocoon, enhance competition and lead to new choices for consumers.
That said, where is the handheld category headed? Look for these developments in the second half of next year:
Wireless becomes a truly useful option (instead of an expensive curiosity).
Multi-function devices take off -- cell phone and handheld; cell phone plus instant messaging; handheld and GPS; handheld and paging; or other combinations
Better hardware -- faster processors, brighter screens, longer-life batteries.
What I think won't happen: Handhelds used for general-purpose Web surfing. Instead, they'll be used to access specialized Net services like stock quotes, weather, maps and sports scores.
In short, there's probably a handheld in your future. Especially for the 20-somethings in the crowd, for whom deskbound computers are pass‚ and handheld computing is the rage.
Be sure to click to our Special Report for all the latest Palm resources. Click for more. |
