Handhelds Tackle The Enterprise
InternetWeek - 06/18/99; 12:00 a.m. ET
Handheld computers enlarged their enterprise IT role this week through a
scaled-down version of Java and new wireless stock trading apps.
3Com's Palm Computing unit, developer of the best-selling Palm Pilot, furthered
its enterprise software development push by enlisting Sun Microsystems to bring a
miniaturized version of Java, called Java 2 Micro Edition (J2ME), to the Palm
operating system. J2ME will let developers split up Java platform code between
the client and the server, making it easier to run enterprise-scale apps on devices
with limited memory.
Financial services giant Fidelity Investments said it is launching the first wireless
trading application designed for use with the Palm VII, the first Palm device with
built-in wireless connectivity. Four other online brokerages also announced they
will offer wireless trading on a range of handhelds, though they are not targeting
the nascent Palm VII platform -- yet.
"We expect that the use of wireless trading, as well as other types of wireless
interactive and e-commerce applications, will skyrocket over the next few years,"
said Edward Kountz, an analyst at the Tower Group.
Palm Computing and other makers of handheld computers are banking on that
spike.
"More and more enterprises are developing core applications like e-mail,
e-commerce, and customer resource management on Java," said Mark Bercow,
Palm Computing's vice president for strategic alliances and platform
development. "This will enable enterprises to run those solutions on the Palm
platform."
While the Palm platform has been largely used for personal productivity
functions such as contact management, Palm Computing has stepped up its efforts
to promote the platform for enterprise functions. It has announced alliances with
Oracle, SAP, and Sybase to provide Palm interfaces to database and ERP tools.
The company's continuing strategic thrust will be to push further up the
enterprise ladder, Bercow said. In so doing, the company hopes to leverage the
widespread use of Pilots by corporate users; it estimates over half the 4 million
installed base is corporate.
Some industries, most notably financial services, aren't waiting for software
developers to catch up to their application requirements. Fidelity said it is
launching a homegrown wireless trading application that is a front end to the
company's existing online trading system. It runs on the Palm VII and 3Com's
Palm.Net service.
Though the Palm VII is currently available only in the New York area, Fidelity's
trading application, called InstantBroker, will be accessible nationwide. It is being
rolled out over the next few weeks.
"We always envisioned that InstantBroker would be available on a broad range of
devices," said Joseph Ferra, senior vice president of Fidelity's Personal
Investment and Brokerage Group. "We want to make it as easy as possible for our
customers to do business with us."
Similarly, Firstrade Securities, Wyse Securities, Benson York Group, and
WinTrade all introduced wireless trading over the w-Trade Wireless Trading
System from w-Trade Technologies. w-Trade can run over any cellular digital
packet data network.
All four will offer trading to users of Palm III, IIIx, and V devices, as well as to
Windows CE devices, two-way pagers, and smart phones. The w-Trade system
does not yet support the Palm VII. Wireless trading will be available immediately
from all of the brokers except WinTrade, which will deploy its service in the
third quarter.
Fidelity's Palm VII application, InstantBroker, will let customers receive stock
quotes and execute trades in real time, as well as pull down account balance and
position information, and receive price trigger, margin call, and option
assignment notifications. The service will be available to active traders who
execute 36 trades per year or who have $100,000 or more in assets with Fidelity.
The InstantBroker application will work like a standard Palm VII Palm Query
Application running on the Palm.Net service. Palm.Net operates over the
BellSouth Wireless Data network, which also supports InstantBroker on two-way
pagers. Both services use elliptical curve cryptography from Certicom to protect
sensitive data. Customers who choose InstantBroker on the Palm VII will pay the
standard Palm.Net rate of $24.99 per month for up to 150 Kbytes of transmitted
data, or roughly 450 full screens, plus a commission on each trade.
"Bringing InstantBroker to the Palm VII was a no-brainer for us," Ferra said.
"The Palm VII was in line with what we were already doing. It didn't pose any
challenges from an IT perspective."
John Hsu, president of Wyse Securities, said wireless trading services are a must.
"Eighty percent of our trades come over the Internet," Hsu said. "Wireless
trading is a way to extend this convenience for customers, so they can trade from
any location. No discount brokerage can afford to lose the competitive edge
wireless trading provides."
Wyse's service will cost $29.95 per month for unlimited usage, plus a $7.95
commission per trade.
The combination of convenience and cost is one Hsu believes will be compelling
for his customers.
"We expect to have thousands signing up right away," he said. "And we expect
our business to grow from there
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