Analysts See Palm Handheld Expansion Card Battle Brewing
FRom Computergram ( www.computerwire.co.uk )
Worth reading. A lot of these are going to be sold over the next few years.
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By Dan Jones
Analysts yesterday predicted that there will be a standards battle
between Palm Inc and its licensees, Sony Corp and Handspring Inc,
over the formats used for memory and expansion cards in PDAs made by
the companies.
All three are pushing their own specifications for cards that can be
used to connect peripherals - such as Bluetooth modules or digital
cameras - to a handheld device, or add to its memory. Palm unveiled
plans to use the Secure Digital (SD) format for memory and peripheral
expansion cards at PC Expo last week. At the same event, Sony was
showing a prototype of its forthcoming handheld which is also based
on the Palm operating system, but incorporates Sony's Memory Stick
storage device. Meanwhile, Handspring has made a major selling point
of the Springboard expansion modules it developed for its Palm
OS-based Visor range of PDAs.
Analysts think that using separate standards will cause a lot of
confusion in the marketplace. "This is going to be an absolute
mess, you're going to have a lot of pissed off people," fumed
Jack Gold, head of the mobile and pervasive computing practice at
Meta Group Inc. "If you throw away your Palm and get a Sony,
you'll have to get new cards. That's like saying you have to buy new
connectors when you change between Compaq and HP PCs." Tim
Scannell, an analyst at Mobile Insights Inc concurred, "there
has to be some standardization here," he said.
Many analysts had expected that Palm would settle on the
CompactFlash format and were surprised by the Santa Clara,
California-based company's decision to used the SD card format.
However, Alan Kessler, chief operating officer at Palm told
ComputerWire that the company has entirely rejected a generic
industry consortium-developed interface which it might have used for
its devices: "we're not going to support CompactFlash, no
way." He described the CF specification as an old technology and
said that the postage stamp size SD cards offered the "smallest,
most elegant solution." He also dismissed the possibility of the
SD card format not being well supported by the industry. "Look
at the companies behind it," he said. Matsushita, SanDisk and
Toshiba originally developed the SD specification.
Scannell thinks that Palm's 70% or 80% share of the handheld market
will mean that SD cards will get accepted as the industry standard.
However, Gold claims that CompactFlash is already well on the way to
becoming a de-facto expansion slot in the mobile market as it already
used by Compaq and HP in their Microsoft Pocket PC devices, as well
as by Palm licensee TRG Products and most notebook PC manufacturers.
"There's so much stuff out there already," Gold said,
noting that you can buy CF modems for handhelds today. Palm is
expecting to launch peripherals and memory cards using the SD format
early next year.
Japanese consumer giant Sony has a broader strategy for its chewing
gum sized Memory Stick, planning to use it in PCs, audio players and
a slew of home entertainment products as well as handhelds. "On
the consumer side the Memory Stick is a great device," Scannell
said. However, at the moment the device can only be used for storage
purposes. Sony is trying to get third party manufacturers to build
peripherals in the shape of the Memory Stick that use the same
connectors. However, these peripherals are unlikely to be on the
market before Sony introduces its new smaller version of the
specification in 2001.
The real loser in any standards battle could be Mountain View,
California-based Handspring. The company was the first to popularize
the concept of expansion slots for Palm-based computers with its
Springboard module but the larger companies in any standards battle
could squeeze it out. "I think it's a real problem for
Handspring long term," said Gold. He says that the company has
lost momentum with its Springboard program. "How many modules
have actually been released in the last six months?" he asked.
Handspring spokesperson, Brain Jaquet, says that around 12 modules
from the company and third party developers are now on the market
since the Visor's launch last September. However, it is hard to know
exactly how many more modules are waiting in the wings. 2,500 copies
of Springboard spec have been downloaded from Handspring's web site
but the company does not keep tabs on development work. Jaquet said
that it has spoken around 100 companies with Springboard projects in
varying stages of development. |
