Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : The New Qualcomm - a S&P500 company -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Asterisk who wrote (298)	7/29/1999 11:28:00 AM
From: John Biddle	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 13582

First, have you seen the number, quality, and breadth of applications available for the palm? Most of those applications will be usable on the PDQ. The only limitation is that it has a different screen size so anything that depends on screen size won't work. I own a Palm III and use it every day. I also carry a pager and a cell phone. I didn't mean to suggest that laptops, or whatever it is they'll evolve into, would be the only devices out there, just the winner when we talk about combination devices. Each of the small devices I carry is well designed for its intended use, but I look forward to the day when the pager functionality can be replaced by capabilities in the phone (they're getting close). I agree that lots of combinations will be brought to market, I just don't think many will be commercially viable. High risk investments you might say. Having similar applications isn't good enough. When the boss or client send you a spreadsheet or presentation you need to be able to read and edit it, not just be able to say "hey, I have a spreadsheet too".<g> I haven't kept up with the aftermarket for Palm utilities, so if apps compatible with Word, Excel, Project, etc. are available I'll admit I was wrong. I don't see business people learning another set of apps on their Palms, they want their existing apps in the wireless world. Second, what makes you think that you have to rewrite a web site for something like a PDQ? Have you ever seen one? My impression is that they have full HTML capability (minus graphics). You may have me here, but I'm not sure. No, I have not yet seen a PDQ in operation, just pictures. What I had read seemed to imply that such fiddling or translating as I mentioned would be necessary for these small devices. If you are right and the handhelds just know how to get text only and reformat it, that's better than I thought they could do. I thought the Palm, for example, only had 2 fonts, both the same size. And what about the graphics? Many sites are awful without them. And even for those with them are you going to send everything to the Palm and just not show it if it's graphic. What a waste of bandwidth and xmission time. I know many sites have a graphics off button, but it will be a pain to keep toggling it on and off each time you switch back and forth between desktop use where presumably you want the graphics and handheld use where you don't. And who wants to give up the good stuff (graphics, sound, color)? Demand will drive graphics to the handhelds. Near term products interest me, but I'm a lot more interested in further out, since so many problems need to be resolved in the short term. This post was not meant to be snotty or condescending but I think that the future is in having a mix of appliances. It wasn't and I didn't take it that way. I was more focused on the big winner rather than the many profitable products which will also be out there. My guess is that when they make the laptop small enough (but not too small), it will become the defacto ubiquitous wireless device. Phones will not go away, there'll be hundreds of millions of them. It's the phone-as-everything I disagree with.