"The Secret of Palm's Success"
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"The Secret of Palm's Success"
How does a new computing platform go from zero to millions of users in less than three years as the Palm has? Ask someone who owns one.
Eric’s First Law of PDAs
Sure, there were PDAs before the Palm. But they failed to measure up to what Intelligent Paradigm’s Eric Berdahl calls Eric’s First Law of PDAs: “If you can’t get the box to do exactly what you want, exactly the way you want it, with exactly the feedback you want in the store in the ten minutes you get to play with the floor model, then keep your money in your pocket.”
A 31-year-old engineer who has designed everything from molecular modeling software to genetic diagnostic systems, Berdahl admires the simple design of the Palm OS. “The thing that most impresses me about Palm is the fact that they dodged the it-must-do-everything syndrome that others fell into,” he says. “Palm did a small set of things very well and stopped trying to swallow the elephant.”
It beeps
“The original reason I bought it was because I had a tendency to forget about appointments and meetings,” says Keith Bell, 24. “If I have an appointment, it beeps. It’s unbelievable how much more useful than a Filofax the Palm is for just that feature.”
An Apple customer since he first used an Apple IIe 14 years ago, Bell works full-time in medical research. “At night, I take classes at the Boston University School of Public Health. In between, I do freelance computer consulting (repairs and training) for extra money, and I’m an associate director of a local nonprofit organization. The only way I can keep my busy schedule straight is with my Palm.” Bell reports that his Palm accompanies him everywhere (except on dates).
“It wakes me up in the morning. It reminds me to move my car when the meter is up. It helps me locate Orion in the night sky. I have read two classic novels that I had always meant to read, but never got around to on paper. My cribbage game has improved immensely.”
No such thing
It’s probably safe to say that there’s no such thing as a typical Palm user. That’s because the Palm computing platform does so many different things for so many different Mac people.
Trekkies, for instance, love the Palm: Alan Anderson, a 37-year-old computer programmer whose primary hobby is studying and speaking the Klingon language, is a prime example of a power user: “I use it to help me translate between English and Klingon,” he says. “Some of my reference material consists of Klingon prefix and suffix charts, phrase lists from a couple of published books, song lyrics (both my own and others’ songs), and collected text from a series of Klingon language trading cards. I maintain a complete Klingon-English vocabulary list using the Dictionary application from Evolutionary Systems. I’m skilled enough in the language that I don’t have to look up words very often, but when I do need to, it only takes me a few seconds to do it.”
Mac user Vikki Harris, 55, who works at the Franklin Covey store in Des Moines, Iowa, uses the Palm III as her primary planner: “Palm is the way to go for anyone who needs computer capabilities and doesn’t want to lug a laptop around.” (Her husband, Guy, 69, a newspaper carrier, keeps track of 300-plus customers on his Palm III.)
Göran Larsson, 31, an Apple-authorized service engineer in Stockholm, Sweden, uses his Palm organizer both at work and in his personal life: “I’m a insulin dependent diabetic, and I use the Palm to keep track of insulin doses and glucose readings, and to plot and compare these readings into a readable form so I can adjust my treatment,” he says. “This gives me more control over my diabetes and enhances my life and lifestyle despite the diabetes.”
Size and Power
Don Agro of Dog Park Software in Toronto counts size and power as the two best things about the Palm. A Mac software developer since 1988, Agro has even used his Palm III to track satellites.
Dipesh Navsaria, 25, a pediatric physician assistant in East Central Illinois, uses his Palm III at work. “It’s a lot easier to look up immunizations and dosages in one handy little unit than carrying 45 different pieces of paper around,” he notes.
Julian Koh, 24, a network engineer at Northwestern University, likes having his personal information at his fingertips: “I can tell you exactly how many times I’ve ordered from different mailorder companies, when my warranty on my VCR is going to run out, my registration numbers and serial numbers for appliances and software packages, and my continuing saga of getting my amplifier fixed at the neighborhood repair shop.”
On a recent trip to Malaysia, Koh took along the entire collection of Sherlock Holmes stories on his Palm III. He uses it at the office, too: “At work, I use the Palm III as a serial terminal with PalmTelnet to connect to networking equipment in the field,” he says. “I also keep a database of Ethernet vendor IDs to help me determine what kind of machine I’m trying to track down on the network. The other big thing I use the Palm III at work for is to hook up to a modem to dial into our network to test the modem pools. Since the Palm III supports PPP and TCP/IP out of the box, it’s a cinch to use it to verify proper operation of the modem pools.”
Channel surfing
Mike MacPhee, who works in specification sales at Richard McDonald & Associates in Calgary, Alberta, says, “It wakes me up in the morning. It reminds me to move my car when the meter is up. It helps me locate Orion in the night sky. I have read two classic novels that I had always meant to read, but never got around to on paper. My cribbage game has improved immensely.” MacPhee adds that he also uses his Palm to change channels on his TV.
Driving at night?
Omar Shahine, 22, knows the way to go. Shahine, program manager-to-be for Microsoft Outlook Express for the Macintosh, downloads driving directions from Mapquest and uses his Palm III as a navigation tool. “It makes driving at night great,” he reports. “I can turn on backlighting and make my way to my final destination.”
Jeff Richardson, a 29-year-old New Orleans attorney, says, “The best thing about the Palm is that it contains all of the information that I need at my fingertips—phone numbers, schedule, the text of frequently-accessed legal statutes—and is always readily available because it stays in my pocket.”
“It’s like a little Macintosh”
Tom Morgan, who wrote MTI MovPlayer for the Palm (check out the dancing baby screen shot that uses just 8K of Palm RAM) has high praise for the Palm III: “It’s like a little Macintosh,” he says.
Barbara Van Buskirk, a freelance graphic designer and full time mom in Asheville, North Carolina, sums up the reason for this fierce loyalty best of all: “I find my Palm III invaluable for keeping track of my mind,” she says.
—David Graham
Also read “The Real News from Palm Computing”
for the story behind the Palm MacPac v2. |
