New Palm device - "Zero Gravity"
From the Wi-lan thread, and originally, the Winnipeg Free Press.
Message 15360621
winnipegfreepress.com
Thu, Feb 15, 2001
By Geoff Kirbyson
MANITOBA will be the first province in Canada where people can read and send e-mails and see pictures while
surfing the Web from the palm of their hands.
This next generation of personal digital assistant, or "Palm Pilot" -- dubbed Zero Gravity -- will be unveiled this
morning by Winnipeg-based Zero Gravity, Inc. It goes beyond current hand-held technology by offering users the
ability to surf the Web complete with pictures and graphics.
"It's like going through a drive-through and one place will only sell you the fries. We give you the whole meal
deal," said Bruce Waite, director of Zero Gravity, a division of Winnipeg-based Kortex Computer Centre Ltd.
Six months and $1 million in the making, Zero Gravity will run on Manitoba Telecom Services' wireless network
and Palm's operating system, including Palm VX and Palm IIIXE models.
Zero Gravity retails for $49.95 per month on a two-year contract for unlimited Internet usage and the hardware
package -- which includes a wireless modem, e-mail and browser software, and an e-mail account -- sells for an
additional $279.
Zero Gravity is negotiating with other telecom companies across Canada and hopes to have 40,000 subscribers
countrywide within 18 months, including 2,000 in Manitoba.
Waite said other providers across the country only offer pieces of the Zero Gravity package.
Eamon Hoey, senior partner for Hoey Associates, a Toronto-based telecommunications firm, said the
announcement was notable if only because most new technology makes its Canadian debut in southern Ontario.
"This is the first product of its kind for Palm service in Canada, without a doubt. One has to be amazed it's coming
out in Manitoba. The whole service is quite innovative," Hoey said.
The potential of Zero Gravity is significant, he said, because there are already 10 million personal digital assistant
users in North America, one-fifth of them in Canada, just five years after they first appeared.
Hoey predicted the product's early users will be tech-savvy, but Zero Gravity will quickly migrate to others,
particularly people who need access to their e-mail but would rather not carry a laptop computer.
The next step for hand-held technology will allow video footage. A hybrid with cellular phone capabilities is not
far off in the future.
"Things are evolving very quickly. You may see a PDA on a phone or vice versa. It's quite likely," said Roger
Ballance, executive vice-president of sales and marketing at MTS Communications Inc.
Zero Gravity will only be available to users of the Palm-branded series of personal digital assistants.
It is aimed at the estimated 30,000 personal digital assistant users in Manitoba, Ballance said.
PHOTO PHIL HOSSACK/WINNIPEG FREE PRESS |
