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To: Mehrdad Arya who wrote (35523)	10/15/1999 12:30:00 AM
From: Mehrdad Arya	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 45548

Wired News Continued 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.