Business Week: November 13, 2000
Tech Buying Guide
The New Wireless Wonders
We've all seen them, sitting in the airport staring at the cell phone in their lap.
While you're standing sullenly in the Starbucks (SBUX) line, they're on the
Internet keeping their e-mail up to the minute. Or rejiggering their portfolio to
compensate for the latest drop in the Nasdaq. Guess what. They're working,
you're not.
On-the-go execs are going wireless, cutting the cord that ties them to the office
or hotel-room desk. It's a brave new untethered world. Not to worry, though. In
our annual computer buyer's guide, we'll help you sort through the hype to find
everything from the best handhelds for fetching e-mail to the best phones for
surfing the Web.
Not for you, you say? We know the excuses: The phones are glitchy, service is
spotty, la de da. You might consider one anyway. They cost little more than
Web-less phones, and basic data services are free at AT&T (T) and Nextel
Communications Inc. (NXTL) You could fall in love with the anytime
convenience of news and e-mail.
O.K., we occasionally succumb to the hype, too. For a wireless fad that didn't
last, log on to Business Week Online to see our obit on Modo, a trendy city
guide that mesmerized us. Turns out the six-week-wonder folded before the
presses rolled.
Prefer something more traditional? We pecked our way across a dozen new
laptops. And check out our unconventional recommendation for your next
desktop. The unvarnished truth is, there's little to distinguish one PC from the
next. But at some point they all crash. So we based our picks on PC makers'
customer service. Here's another cord to cut: Since PC makers charge for
service, we found some nifty low-cost options. Read on.
Handhelds: Pocket Rockets
The do-it-all wireless handheld of your dreams? Close, but no cigar yet
David Lowenthal's daily ferry ride from Bainbridge Island, Wash., to downtown
Seattle used to be 35 minutes of downtime. But now, armed with a Palm Vx and
a wireless hookup from OmniSky (OMNY), Lowenthal, director of software
development for online education company Acadio, can send and receive e-mail
and surf the Web as he rides the waves across Elliott Bay.
In a country where wireless service is fraught with dropped calls and dead spots,
Lowenthal is lucky to find a wireless channel through the open waters around
Seattle. Credit AT&T Wireless Group (AWE) for the network that makes his
connection work. ``Other services, including my cell phone, give out halfway
across the bay,'' he says. Still, Lowenthal's makeshift portable office isn't all that
he wants. For one thing, it can't handle his company e-mail directly, so he has to
have that forwarded to a separate OmniSky account.
Lowenthal's experience illustrates both the promise and the shortcomings of
wireless computers today. At best, pocketing one of those connected gizmos,
such as a Palm and its ilk, can be downright exhilarating. They free you from the
excess tonnage of the laptops and attachments, diaries and Daytimers of today's
over-equipped business traveler. At the same time, they open up a new anytime,
anywhere world that puts all manner of information--stock charts, plane
reservations, your boss's entreaties, you name it--at the tip of your stylus.
Still, there are plenty of gotchas. Only a tiny fraction of the Web has been
translated into the style needed by the smaller-than-life screens. Storage is at a
premium, meaning e-mails are bounced back when the mailbox is full, and
attachments are blithely ignored. Each contraption has its own quirks, so you
need to shop carefully to match your idiosyncrasies to those of the device you're
considering.
It is only now that wireless handhelds and the networks they run on are
becoming practical. Palm (PALM) got the ball rolling last year when it
introduced Palm VII. But that $399 Palm is already the most limited of the new
wireless devices. It can connect only to those Web sites specifically set up for
the Palm VII, including MapQuest for driving directions, Moviefone for movie
listings, and Fidelity Investments for stock trades. The problem: Companies that
want their service to be on the Palm have to create Web pages especially for
Palm. E-mail is similarly constrained, requiring you to sign up for a palm.net
account.
FLEXIBILITY. The Omni-Sky arrangement that Lowenthal uses is much more
flexible. But it comes at a premium price and size, requiring both a $399 Palm
Vx and a clip-on Novatel Minstrel modem for an additional $299 ($99 after a
cash rebate offered through January). The combo will hook up to all the Palm
VII Web sites, plus another set from OmniSky and its partners. You also can go
to any Web site you choose--some work on the Palm Vx, some don't. And
you're not limited to Omni-Sky's mail service. It works with any standard mail
offered by an Internet service provider, such as EarthLink.
There's now good news for buyers who prefer other brands of handhelds.
Starting this month, they can sign up for OmniSky service as well, using Minstrel
modems for either Handspring's Visor, a Palm clone, or the Hewlett-Packard
Jornada, a handheld organizer that uses Microsoft's PocketPC system, a
scaled-down version of Windows.
Coupled to a choice of handhelds, the OmniSky package is enough for a lot of
people. Michael A. Lynch, business development director for New York
new-media company Sweet16.com, has found that the service is good enough
to let him get away without a PC at home. He gets mail from both his server at
work (which is not behind a firewall) and Yahoo! (YHOO) Unlike the Palm VII,
Omni-Sky can download mail while the Palm is turned off, making the network's
slow speed less annoying. He also uses the Web to check on flights and weather
forecasts and to buy movie tickets.
Sure, Lynch still has a couple of complaints. One is that because the Novatel
Minstrel modem connects to the Palm through its sync connector, he cannot use
his $99 Palm Portable Keyboard and the modem at the same time. And the
wireless network has dead spots and can be slow. ``On the whole, I'm happy,''
Lynch says. ``Faster would be better, but it's not too bad.''
TINY E-MAIL. Now that they've gone wireless, handheld computers are well
on their way to becoming solid, general-purpose business tools. But if your main
need is e-mail, there's an even better way: the growing BlackBerry family from
Research in Motion (RIMM). The original pager-size BlackBerry now has been
joined by a larger model, the $499 Palm-size 957, which keeps the same tiny
but usable keyboard and adds a much larger display.
While the BlackBerry can synchronize its contact lists and calendar with
Microsoft Outlook and even browse the Web, it doesn't do any of those things
terribly well. What it does superbly is give you mobile access to your office mail
for about $40 a month. Read and delete a message on the go, and it's gone from
your office mail as well. And many people find that it's easier to compose
messages on the BlackBerries. As funny as it looks, typing them with both
thumbs on the miniaturized qwerty keyboard turns out to be reasonably efficient.
Largely for its e-mail capabilities, BlackBerry is a hit with corporations. Salomon
Smith Barney has handed out nearly 3,000 of them to its bankers, traders, and
other professionals. ``Bankers are on the road all the time,'' says Peter Estlin,
chief administrative officer of SSB's Global Investment Bank. ``Now they are in
touch with the office 24/7. I can even use it while driving. When I'm sitting at a
light, I can do e-mails.'' General Motors (GM) is working with RIM and IBM on
an even more ambitious plan that will give GM executives access to Lotus Notes
mail and company databases, as well as voice-mail messages, on BlackBerries.
Another pager approach is the @ctiveLink Module for Handspring Visors. This
two-way pager module fits into the accessory slot on the back of the Visor and
can receive and send e-mail and, in a peculiar way, get information from the
Web. What it actually does is send queries on specific subjects, such as requests
for sports scores or flight information, and then gets a response back as a text
message that you can scroll through. It's a bit odd, but if you don't mind waiting
a couple of minutes for your info, it works pretty well.
There's another way to go wireless with standard Palm devices, whether from
Palm itself or licensees such as Handspring and Sony. But it works only if you
have a GSM wireless phone, which is the standard in most of the world and is
offered in the U.S. by such carriers as Voice-Stream (VSTR) and Pacific Bell.
The $99 Palm Mobile Internet Kit allows a Palm to dial out using any
infrared-equipped GSM phone as a modem. Sure, it's a little awkward to use,
since the phone and the Palm must be lined up end-to-end for infrared
transmission. But it works--and will work a lot better as GSM systems begin
offering faster data service next year. Folks with PocketPCs also can connect
through GSM or CDMA (such as Sprint PCS and Verizon Wireless) phones
using an add-on card from Socket Communications.
Europeans have had an alternative for the past several years to the tablet-style
Palms and PocketPCs: handheld computers with keyboards, albeit small ones.
The latest in Europe, the Psion Revo, can now be had in the U.S. as the
Diamond Mako from S3. It's a little clamshell handheld with a good
monochrome display and solid ability to sync with desktop data--and
communicate wirelessly through any GSM phone with an infrared port.
Of course, the vast majority of the handheld crowd does not want to connect
wirelessly to anything. They're just looking for a portable way to keep track of
their calendars, address books, and other information. And there's plenty of new
gear to keep them happy, too.
Palm made a splash recently with its introduction of the entry-level m100, at
$149 the cheapest new Palm ever. The display is smaller, and it has a sync cable
instead of a cradle. But that shouldn't matter much to the first-timers that Palm is
aiming for, such as college students.
Rival Handspring (HAND) is targeting the other end of the market. The $449
Prism is Handspring's first color unit and features a display considerably superior
to Palm's color version, the $329 Palm IIIc introduced earlier this year.
But the real story is that the add-on accessories that take advantage of the
Visor's expansion slot--its biggest improvement over Palm--are finally starting to
come out. Among the most interesting: the VisorPhone module makes it a
wireless phone, modules from Good Technology and Innogear turn it into an
MP3 player, and the IDEO EyeModule lets it take digital snapshots.
If it's more memory you're looking for, take a look at Sony's (SNE) new $399
CLIE, its first entry in the Palm-compatible world. It's a trim competitor to the
Palm Vx, but with a big difference. You can add memory to the basic handheld
by buying Sony MemorySticks. That's more and more important as buyers want
access to their corporate databases, and Palm's built-in 8-MB memory simply
isn't enough to handle it. Another good bet is the $330 TRGpro from TRG
Products. It looks just like a Palm III, but has a slot for a CompactFlash card.
That means you can add up to 128 MB or, if you're a real memory hog, stick in
a 1-GB MicroDrive from IBM.
POCKET POWER. While Palms continue to account for about two-thirds of
the market, you can no longer write off handhelds based on Microsoft's
Windows CE software, rechristened PocketPC. They can be a very good
choice if you need a handheld that is more powerful than a Palm--but also more
expensive and somewhat harder to use. HP's Jornada 540 series (from $470),
Casio E-125 ($560), and Compaq iPAQ (from $499) offer brilliant color
displays and fast new processors. The very thin and light iPAQ has won lots of
fans for its visually impressive design. Software on all PocketPCs includes
viewers for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files, as well as Windows Media
Player, which can play MP3 and Windows Media recordings.
Still, no single handheld is going to please everyone all of the time. Salomon's
Estlin spends a lot of time listening to the wish lists of his power users. ``We've
mapped out the ideal device mentally,'' he says. ``It's the equivalent of a wireless
phone, plus BlackBerry service, and calendar synchronization. And it will work
on networks globally.'' Don't expect to see a handheld like that anytime soon,
given the challenges of coming up with such a versatile tool at a price people are
willing to pay. Still, all I want to know is where to sign up to get one.
By Stephen H. Wildstrom in Washington, D.C |
