June 1, 2000
Army of Loyal Programmers
Helps Palm Maintain Its Edge
By PUI-WING TAM
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -- People like Bohm Kim are one reason
Palm Inc. has kept Microsoft Corp. at bay.
Mr. Kim is a Palm loyalist. In fact, the 34-year-old programmer loves his
two Palm computers so much that he quit his software-development job
last year to write applications for Palm devices full time. He also formed a
company whose $12.95 Palm program is climbing the sales charts of
several online software stores. The application, called SilverScreen, creates
flashy icons that help Palm users navigate their handheld organizers.
But what makes Mr. Kim so valuable to Palm is his refusal to adapt his
program for competing gadgets, in particular devices using Microsoft's
Pocket PC operating system. Some of Palm's rivals -- Mr. Kim declines to
identify them, citing nondisclosure agreements -- have asked him to write
software for them. He declines, he says, because "all the other devices are
just trying to copy Palm. Our strength lies in the fact that we've allied
ourselves with Palm."
Palm has thousands of partisans like Mr. Kim, and they have given it an
edge by writing software exclusively for the device originally known as the
Palm Pilot. Many of the developers run shoestring operations and sell their
wares largely as Web "downloads." But together they provide a critical
mass of add-on software that is a compelling reason for some consumers
to choose Palms. According to International Data Corp., Palm has an 80%
share of the handheld computing-device market. (That figure includes the
share of a rival, Handspring Inc.'s Visor, which uses the Palm operating
system.)
"The main reason I like the Palm now is that there
are lots of visual applications, and more and more
applications are being made for the Palm," says
Vikram Gupta, a management consultant in New
York who uses a Palm V.
Officials at Palm -- which is 95% owned by 3Com
Corp., which took it public earlier this year -- say
they have 70,000 third-party independent
developers registered now, up from 3,000 at the
start of 1999. Microsoft, by contrast, says it has
signed on 200 companies to build applications for
the Pocket PC, though many of those companies
have dozens of individual developers working on applications. The Pocket
PC operating system, which was relaunched in April in a sleeker package,
runs on Palm look-alikes made by companies like Hewlett-Packard Co.
and Compaq Computer Co.
Among Palm's loyal developers are start-ups like HealtheTech, of Golden,
Colo., which has created a diet log for the Palm; Vindigo, of New York,
which has produced technology that delivers local maps and event listings
for the gadget; and Actioneer, a San Francisco start-up that sells a
program that sends notes and reminders on the Palm.
"Palm is clearly the leading platform right now," concedes Phil Holden,
group product manager for Microsoft's mobile-devices division, though he
adds that Microsoft is just "starting its major push for Pocket PC." To lure
more developers, Microsoft has recently released new programming tools
on the Internet.
Certainly not all of Palm's big market share comes from its armies of
add-on writers. Wednesday, it announced the purchase of AnyDay.com
(www.anyday.com), a provider of Internet-based calendar solutions, for
$80 million in cash and stock options, another step in its race to become
the leading wireless handheld computer provider. It also got to market
years before its competitors, and many Palm users still buy the device
because they want to get the software that comes with it. The machines
that use the Microsoft operating system have similar built-in programs. And
Microsoft's Mr. Holden points out that many Palm-only add-on programs
-- such as spreadsheets -- don't represent an edge against Microsoft
because the functions are embedded in the Pocket PC.
Not all software developers are going Palm-only, either. Larger companies
like Sybase Inc., the database purveyor, are also drawing up software for
non-Palm handheld computers. So are smaller developers like Concept
Kitchen Inc., a San Francisco start-up that has produced a Lonely Planet
travel-guide program.
"Microsoft has been very supportive, making sure we have a presence in
trade shows," says Steve Organ, marketing director at Concept Kitchen.
"So we're supporting the handheld industry as a whole, not just one
device."
But at least for now, with new developers signing on at the rate of 2,500 a
week, Palm appears to be winning over the bulk of the developer
community. "Palm obviously has the momentum," says Jill House, an
analyst at International Data Corp. "And having people well-versed in its
platform is a definite plus," because that helps customers stay interested in
the device.
Palm's role model for the strategy is Microsoft. It hopes its developer
community will turn the Palm into the standard for all handheld devices,
much as Microsoft's operating system became a standard partly because
so many developers created applications for it. Palm executives, including
Chief Executive Carl Yankowski, have made expanding the ranks of
software developers a priority. Palm holds classes for developers and will
unveil a $150 million venture-capital fund that will be used to invest in some
developers.
"It was a no-brainer" to develop for Palm, says Kelly Forrister, director of
strategic alliances at Actioneer. "Palm has a much stronger developer
community, and we get marketing support from Palm. We even get
discounts of 35% on Palm hardware."
Mr. Kim is typical of Palm's developer army. The Stanford University
alumnus, who had dabbled in programming since his teenage years in his
hometown of Iowa City, branched out on his own after buying his first
Palm in June 1999. Enamored of the device, he called up an old
high-school buddy, Mark Peters. The pair spotted potential in building
software that would liven up the device's interface.
"With Palm, anyone with a good idea has a real chance to make it happen,"
says Mr. Peters, 32, who also runs a moving business on the side. "For
other more established tech products, only developers who have a lot of
financial backing have the chance to succeed."
Mr. Kim, who set up a crude office in a two-bedroom rental in Mountain
View, Calif., began developing the SilverScreen program through a flurry
of e-mails and phone calls with Mr. Peters, who works out of the
basement of his Iowa City home.
Palm gave the pair support. The duo regularly raided Palm's Web site for
programming information. And late last year, Mr. Kim attended a
developer meeting on the sprawling Palm campus, where executives
pledged to do more to help the company's fledgling developers.
On Jan. 6, the pair uploaded their completed SilverScreen application onto
a popular Palm software Web site, PalmGear (www.PalmGear.com).
Within four hours, sales began trickling in.
Not long afterward, other handheld device makers began contacting
Messrs. Kim and Peters with requests to develop non-Palm software. But
the pair declined. "We really want to focus on one platform," Mr. Kim
says. Adds Mr. Peters, "Palm is in our minds night and day."
Palm's growing population of developers hasn't been trouble free. As the
ranks have skyrocketed, so have rumblings that the company is having
trouble meeting their needs. Mark Bercow, a Palm vice president,
acknowledges there have been some complaints and says Palm is hiring
more staff and beefing up its support infrastructure. "The developers are a
very important part of our competitive advantage," he says. "We don't
want to screw that up."
Indeed, Mr. Kim and his partner haven't ruled out someday creating
software for other handheld platforms, especially if Palm stumbles. "If
Microsoft Pocket PC improved its ease of use, that would philosophically
agree with what we do," Mr. Kim says. |
