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To: slacker711 who wrote (2348)	10/14/1999 5:16:00 PM
From: Ruffian	Respond to of 13582

U.S. seeks to broaden IT tariff reduction in WTO talks By George Leopold EE Times (10/14/99, 4:02 p.m. EDT) WASHINGTON — The Clinton administration said Wednesday (Oct. 13) that it will push for further reductions in global tariffs on information technology (IT) products during a World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial meeting next month. Outlining its trade strategy going into the next round of WTO negotiations scheduled to begin Nov. 30 in Seattle, the White House said it will push for adoption of an Information Technology Agreement II backed by the U.S. high-tech industry. WTO adopted the first IT agreement in 1997. The accord eliminated tariffs on about $600 billion worth of technology products, including computers and telecommunications equipment. "In Seattle, the United States goal is to adopt 'ITA-2' agreement to make additional information technology products tariff free," trade officials said in a statement. The U.S. high-tech industry has been lobbying U.S. trade negotiators for months to place extension of the IT agreement at the top of the U.S. agenda during the WTO talks. During an August congressional hearing on the agenda for the WTO talks, Rhett Dawson, president of the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI) told lawmakers, "We strongly advocate completion of the ITA II negotiations to expand product coverage" and to address non-tariff trade barriers like incompatible technical standards. The group also has been pushing for the elimination of duplicate testing and certification requirements for IT products in foreign markets. China, for example, requires government certification of foreign telecommunications products. Under ITA II, the certification would have to be dropped in order for China to join WTO. China is one of 33 nations seeking WTO membership. U.S. trade officials said allowing China and others into the trade organization would also help harmonize intellectual property laws that are seen as the key to unleashing global electronic commerce. The U.S. agenda for the Seattle talks also includes seeking an extension of a 1998 moratorium on customs duties on "electronic transmissions." Washington will also press WTO members to oppose any barriers to the spread of e-commerce and promote its expansion to developing countries. Along with extending the moratorium on duties, ITI wants the administration to "clarify that the exemption from tariffs applies both to the transmissions themselves and to their contents," Dawson said.

To: slacker711 who wrote (2348)	10/14/1999 6:27:00 PM
From: Ruffian	Respond to of 13582

Palm Speaks Out on Nokia Deal page 2 3:00 a.m. 14.Oct.99.PDT continued Bercow: Presumably. But again, we don't need to license anything to Symbian to do what we're doing. WN: No. But presumably the advantage would be to them, licensing the nice friendly Palm interface from you. Bercow: Potentially. Sure. That could be one of the things we talk about. WN: And that would bring the Palm interface not just to this new category of smart phones but to Psion handhelds and similar devices? Bercow: Presumably. But that's still one of the things ... er ... that's not our intention. WN: So if these smart phones run the Palm OS interface, will they also run Palm applications? Bercow: The simple way I describe this to people is, you can think of an operating system as made out of three components. There's the microkernel. There's the next level -- the OS services -- and the third level is the interface and user environment. So what we're doing is we're taking the Palm OS services and the user environment and putting that on top of the Epoc kernel. So we don't expect there will be any sort of developer-visible interface other than the Palm interface, because those are the things you write to create your applications. WN: So the long and short of it is that it will run Palm applications? Bercow: Yes, it will run Palm applications. But there won't be binary compatability. I want to be clear about that. WN: Binary compatability. What's that? Bercow: So that's where you would take your application from your Palm OS device today and just run it on this new device that we're going to create with Nokia. WN: So you will not be able to? Bercow: You will not be able to. What the developer will be able to do is to use the same developer environment and the same interfaces. We anticipate that it will be nothing more than a recompile. WN: So, applications should be easily adapted? Bercow: Right. Exactly. WN: And of course that's a great advantage. You have a very wide base of software developers. Bercow: Right. That's the reason why. People are asking why did Nokia do this? The answer is to leverage the Palm economy -- the 22,000-plus registered developers we have, the relationships we have with Oracle, Cybase, Computer Associates, SAP. To put that on Nokia phones is a huge advantage for them. WN: So what about Symbian? They don't have anywhere near the software or the developers you have. Bercow: Right. WN: Do you think they're eyeing that, too? The Palm ecosystem? Bercow: I think they'd like to have the kind of ecosystem that Palm has.... If there's potentially some way we could work with them to take advantage of that ... I suppose. I don't know what that is yet. We don't really have the intention to make that happen. Although again, we haven't really sat down to talk about our responsibilities. WN: So what kind of time frame is the Nokia deal going to play out in? Bercow: The Nokia devices have been slated to be available in the next two years. So there's some work that needs to be done to get these devices to market. WN: And with Symbian? Bercow: There's no time frame. There's no obligation to finish by certain dates or anything. WN: Where do today's announcements put Windows CE? The Palm OS seems to be going from strength to strength. Bercow: I think the real loser in the deal with Nokia is Microsoft. I think it's a big blow. I haven't heard any reaction out of them today, but I imagine it's a big blow to them. WN: Well, a couple of days ago Bill Gates showed off a next-generation smart phone running Windows CE, browsing the Web, in color. Apparantly quite an impressive demonstration. Bercow: Well, Microsoft has always been really good at two things: As [Sun Microsystems'] Scott McNealy says, they're great [inaudible]. And the other thing they're good at is showing technology. But they're not great at creating compelling products. WN: Philips just dropped its Windows CE product. Bercow: Philips just dropped their palm-sized Windows CE product, that's correct. I've heard rumors that the others are getting out as well. WN: Do you think you've heard Windows CE death knell then? Bercow: Microsoft's not going to give up on it. I expect it will be back. Remember, Microsoft only has got to get it right enough. So, we're not at all going to take our eye off them for a second. But we're enjoying a leadership position right now. WN: What's up with Java? Bercow: We announced with Sun back in the early summer. Sun has introduced a new Java platform, called Java 2 micro edition ... and we're supporting that and when that's available we'll provide that to our developers. WN: So the Palm OS will run Java apps using this new platform? Bercow: Yes. Some day. That's correct. WN: Will it run on the Nokia smart phones, too? Bercow: Good question. I don't know the answer to that just yet. It should, but I'd be just short of saying that's true. I want it to. It would make sense for us. WN: To go back to Symbian again, does the Symbian relationship open up a backdoor to talking to other members of the Symbian partnership -- Motorola and Ericsson -- who make up the rest of the mobile phone manufacturers? Bercow: I don't think so, because we didn't use Symbian to make this deal with Nokia, so I don't see why we would use them to make deals with these other guys. Now, I'm not confirming or denying we are talking to those other guys, I'm simply saying Symbian's involvement with our ability to set up this relationship with Nokia was exactly zero. They're entirely separate. I've seen some material on the Symbian Web site today and it lists them as a player in this relationship with Nokia and ... they're just not party to this agreement... So, they're doing what I probably would do. They're positioning themselves [inaudible].... The fact is the agreement today was between us and Nokia. << Back 2 of 2 Fax this from your computer for free Related Wired Links: Shopping the Palm VII Way Monday Visor Closing In on Palm 7.Oct.99 Is Palm Losing Its Grip? 14.Sep.99 3Com Spinning Off Palm 13.Sep.99

To: slacker711 who wrote (2348)	10/14/1999 6:33:00 PM
From: Ruffian	Respond to of 13582

Palm Speaks Out on Nokia Deal by Leander Kahney 3:00 a.m. 14.Oct.99.PDT Mark Bercow, Palm's vice president of strategic alliances and platform development, set up Wednesday's big deal with Nokia to put the Palm OS on mobile phones. At the same time, Symbian -- a joint venture between cell phone giants Nokia, Motorola, Ericsson, and Palm's European arch nemesis, Psion -- put out a press release claiming it also was talking to Palm, a move that apparently irked Bercow. Wired News: Do you want to give a quick summary of the news? Bercow: So, today we announced jointly with Nokia a broad cross-licensing agreement. The headlines would be that Nokia has licensed the Palm OS. And second, that we would co-develop with Nokia an advanced version of Palm OS that will create a category of what we call pen-based smart phones. Essentially, integrated cell phone and Palm devices that will be owned by Palm and also licensed to others. More Infostructure in Wired News Read more in The Wireless World WN: Don't you already have that with Qualcomm? Bercow: We do. We have the existing relationship with Qualcomm, with the Palm OS and the smart phone, and we're going to do the same sort of thing with Nokia. WN: Which are, of course, the market leaders. Bercow: Which are the worldwide leaders. Yes, that's right. WN: And what about the Symbian relationship? That's a bit strange. An agreement to discuss ...? Bercow: Yeah. We've agreed -- mostly because we've been asked to by our licensing partner -- that we should sit down and talk about the possibility of maybe working together sometime in the future, which we said we would do. WN: So Nokia asked you to do that? Bercow: Yes. They're partners with both of us and they suggested it might be beneficial if we both talk. WN: Why did they suggest that? Bercow: Because it feels good. WN: But why? Symbian used to be the software arm of Psion, which is Palm's major competitor in Europe. Bercow: Right. First of all, this agreement between us and Nokia today involves no third parties. We have been actually somewhat fazed at how effective Symbian has been at getting their nose in the middle of our announcement with Nokia, and we sort of wonder why that is happening, but this agreement is between us and Nokia. WN: Right. But maybe people are interested in the Symbian thing because it's a little harder to understand. Bercow: Well, that's ... yeah, from that standpoint. I think we're characterizing it as a feel-good announcement. It makes sense for us to see if there are ways for us to see where we might be able to work together and we'll sit down and try to figure that out. WN: Reuters was saying the idea is to put the Palm OS interface on top of the nice, sleek Epoc OS. Bercow: It is true that in this joint development work with Nokia that we will use the Epoc kernel. But that's the extent of it. It's the kernel. The same way that ... you see the Palm OS is architected so that it can support different kernels.... So the joint development work we're going to do with Nokia will use the Epoc kernel. We'll use other kernels for other types of devices in these other kinds of deals. WN: OK. And is this how -- presumably -- the relationship with Symbian would fit together? 1 of 2 Next >>