Wireless industry syncs up
zdnet.com
[Here is the article with the 3Com and Palm references highlighted:]
The wireless industry is undergoing a harmonic convergence of sorts, as software developers, data service providers and hardware makers work on methods to synchronize mobile devices with home-office data.
The developments are under way on several fronts. BellSouth Wireless Data L.P., for example, is helping Microsoft Corp. marry wireless Windows CE devices with applications on users' PCs.
The companies are working to integrate BellSouth's interactive paging service as a link between CE devices and Microsoft's Exchange messaging software, said Bill Lenahan, president and CEO of BellSouth Wireless Data, in Woodbridge, N.J.
"The concept is to push and pull so you can ultimately get an e-mail message sent out to your handheld immediately," Lenahan said. The service is due next year.
BellSouth also plans to offer data synchronization between pagers and Exchange as well as between pagers and Lotus Development Corp.'s Notes.
Separately, Microsoft, of Redmond, Wash., plans to launch its MSN.com Mobile Service for handheld devices, which will enable smart phones and personal digital assistants to send instant messages and view Web content such as sports scores, news and weather information. The next version of the service, due by year's end, will integrate with MSN.com, a revamped version of the online service that Microsoft launched on Thursday.
Big Blue's news
IBM is taking a different tack, working to make markup languages communicate across different wireless devices. The company's Pervasive Computing unit, in Somers, N.Y., has developed code that can take a markup language in one format on one device and spit it out in another custom language -- from Voice Extensible Markup Language to HTML, for example. The group will announce partnerships with U.S. carriers to support the code and to offer services within the next year, according to sources.
The IBM group is also working on ways to better manage the growing crop of mobile devices based on different platforms, such as 3Com Corp.'s Palm, Microsoft's Windows CE and Symbian Ltd.'s Symbian.
"In general, the [United States] suffers for the fact that they don't have a single standard," said Ajei Gopal, IBM's director of technology for pervasive computing. IBM will work with carriers, Gopal said, to take management capabilities to all the wireless hardware vendors that IBM supports, regardless of what platform the vendors' devices run on.
"I don't expect to see common application development between Palm, CE and Symbian any time soon," he said. "That's OK. We're looking at more of a services model."
In the wings: Palm VII
3Com's Palm Computing division, in Santa Clara, Calif., is also looking toward improved services for its Palm VII, which sources said is due on Oct. 4. More than 100 Web sites will be accessible via the new Palm device, with 1,000 more expected next year, officials said.
What won't be immediately available for the Palm, or most other devices for that matter, is flat-rate service.
"Flat-rate is not something that networks like to do," BellSouth's Lenahan said. "The only ones who do that are the ones that are desperate."
But Open Sky, a yet-to-be-launched wireless Internet service for handhelds based in Mountain View, Calif., plans to offer a flat-rate service through multiple carriers, starting with Cellular Digital Packet Data and extending to other networks next year.
Options proliferate
Flat-rate or not, users' options for wireless access are expanding.
Bell Atlantic Mobile plans to launch wireless Internet access over the CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) network next quarter. In addition, parent company Bell Atlantic Corp.'s pending mergers with GTE Corp. and Vodafone AirTouch plc. will expand the New York-based carrier's CDMA coverage across the United States, likely reducing roaming charges for wireless customers.
The emergence of more mature wireless services and products has yet to accomplish one goal: minimizing the number of handheld devices users are carrying.
"It may be too much to expect my [cellular] phone to be able to do everything the Palm can do," said Steve Durst, an engineer at Skaion Corp., in Arlington, Mass. "It would be great if they could figure out the lowest common denominator of what both can do and sync that up accordingly."
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