Palm, Sony Plan to Unveil Wireless Handheld Devices at PC Expo
--From AOl.-- Cooters
Santa Clara, California, June 23 (Bloomberg) -- Palm Inc., the No. 1 maker of electronic organizers, said it will unveil next week a product that gives Palm handheld devices a wireless connection to the Internet.
Sony Corp., the world's No. 2 electronics maker, also plans to show a non-working model of a new organizer running on Palm software at the PC Expo trade show in New York. In November, Sony agreed to license Palm's operating system to develop products with wireless and audio-video capabilities.
Palm executives in April said they planned to offer wireless Internet access for all Palm devices through products such as snap- on wireless modems or an add-on device that communicates wirelessly with a cell phone connected to the Internet. The company's high-end Palm VII organizer has a built-in wireless modem, though users of Palm's other products must buy add-ons to link to the Internet.
Palm's new device would probably compete with wireless modems made by closely held Novatel Wireless Inc. that attach to the Palm III and Palm V models.
Sony, meantime, will introduce the Japanese version of its handheld organizer next month and the official U.S. version early this fall, Sony spokesman David Yang said. The device will have a color screen, he said. Yang declined to provide a price or other details, and Palm officials weren't immediately available to comment.
3Com Corp., a maker of computer-networking equipment, plans to spin off its 94 percent stake in Palm next month.
The shares of Santa Clara, California-based Palm fell 1 7/16 to 27 1/4 in early afternoon trading. They've dropped 27 percent since an initial public offering in March. 3Com, also based in Santa Clara, fell 1 7/16 to 50 9/16.
Tokyo-based Sony's American depositary receipts, each representing one share, rose 1/8 to 94 3/4.
Jun/23/2000 12:56 ET |
