"Palm targets real-time email"
By Stephanie Miles
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
May 20, 1999, 1:00 p.m. PT
When Palm Computing unveils its newest handheld with
wireless Internet access Monday in New York, it will be
taking an important first step toward the goal of
providing full Internet access to non-PC users, observers
say.
As reported earlier, Palm Computing will launch its Palm VII
and complementary Palm.net service in a staggered rollout,
starting Monday, sources say. The service still has some
kinks to work out, but it offers a glimpse at the future of
Internet communication.
The rollout of the Palm VII, accompanied by 3Com's push into
the wireless arena, also underscores the heightened
competition in the handheld world, which has exploded in
popularity. Palm currently enjoys 72 percent of the market,
according to market research firm International Data
Corporation, but Microsoft and its Windows CE manufacturing
partners are close on its heels, and they're expected to roll
out their own wireless products sometime next year.
The $599 Palm VII is nearly identical to its predecessor, the
Palm III, except for the antenna which enables wireless
connectivity. This antenna connects the user to the Palm.net
"Web clipping" service which offers pared-down Internet
content optimized for the small screen of the Palm VII.
Palm VII users can request specific information from a slew of
content providers that have signed up as partners with
Palm.net, as well as send and receive short messages
through the iMessenger service. However, the device offers
neither full access to the Internet nor real two-way email,
services that Palm executives have said in the past are
ill-suited to the small screen of the Palm VII.
"We're not quite there yet, but as a first attempt what they're
doing is fine," said Terry Nozick, of industry newsletter Mobile
Insights, who predicts that despite Palm's assertions to the
contrary, the future of PDAs includes full access to the
Internet.
Palm will probably ultimately offer a full email application as
part of its wireless service, because email is the "killer app,"
of any Internet device or appliance, said Fran Firth, an analyst
with Cahners In-Stat. "This is the beginning of Palm's entry
into the wireless world. They do have a road map, but they
understand what the obstacles are--and email is one of them,"
she said.
"Email is something necessary. It's getting beyond 'nice to
know' information and getting to 'need to know' information,"
Firth said. "It's nice to know if my team won last night. I need
to know if a document arrived or if an order came through."
Essentially, Palm is offering something between a two-way
pager and a notebook computer with wireless Net access,
and thus will compete with each of these devices, and
everything in between, analysts say.
"They're sort of creating a new category," Nozick said. "We're
going to see a lot more devices come out that do what the
Palm VII does." In the meantime, Palm will most likely overlap
to the greatest extent with two-way pager users, who are used
to receiving stock tickers and news feeds and sending out
short messages.
However, most two-way pagers offer nearly unlimited usage
plans, said David Thor, an analyst with Sherwood Research,
so Palm will probably have to adjust the pricing of the
Palm.net service. "Unlimited use is already being offered," he
said. "It's a high enough price point that people are going to
educate themselves, both from a service and device
perspective."
The pricing of the Palm.net
service currently discourages
any kind of long email
exchanges, as its charges are
based on the amount of data
sent and received, a Palm
spokesman said. "We want to
discourage people from using
[iMessenger] as a primary
source of email," he said.
Although "more fully integrated
email capabilities are something
that Palm is looking into."
But the Palm VII does allow short, back-and-forth email
messages, which are vital to business users. "People
cannot live without email, but 95 percent of messages
are short and brief, like a confirmation on a meeting,"
Nozick said. "Quick bursts of information--these are
the messages that keep businesses going day to day."
However, one obstacle to including an email application
is Palm's method of inputting data. Although Palm's
Graffiti handwriting recognition application has been
lauded as an efficient way to input limited information
like addresses and appointments, the method may be
ineffective for composing and sending emails.
"Over time, in order for people to do wide-area
messaging, they'll need a faster input device or
keyboard access," said Thor. "But this is a great first
start."
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