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Technology Stocks : Personal Digital Assistants (PDA) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: KevRupert who wrote (544)	11/17/2000 7:29:14 AM
From: KevRupert	Respond to of 817

Palm ploys in phone-crazed Japan: By Gail Nakada, CBS.MarketWatch.com Last Update: 5:21 AM ET Nov 17, 2000 In the next few months, the next-generation Palm VII device with connectivity to the Internet "will launch in Japan before it launches anywhere else," said Craig Will, president of Palm's Japanese unit, Palm Computing. Speaking at the International Computer Association in Tokyo, Will addressed the key question of how Palm can compete with mobile phones - especially in Japan. True to Japanese form, the answer lies in cooperation rather than confrontation. Palm (PALM: news, msgs) and mobile giant NTT DoCoMo (NTDMY: news, msgs) are working together on several different levels to achieve wireless Internet access for the new device. "You'll see a lot of noise especially next year on wideband (in Japan)," said Will. "We think the low-bandwidth packet-based solution could potentially be the fastest wireless data access on a rich Palm type screen that you'll have in the next year or two, and that's what we're going to bring on a DoCoMo packet network, the same channel I-mode data runs on, next year." NTT DoCoMo wants more data going over their network and is working with many PDA and handheld companies in addition to Palm. The new integrated wireless product will introduce Palm's Web Clipping feature to the Japanese. Web Clipping allows users mobile Internet access over a secure packet-based network where they can carry out e-commerce and online transactions. Will says Palm has seen "a lot of excitement" in Japan over the application. During a Japanese wireless summit the company held in October, Will noted that attendees were, "very interested in developing Web clippings for our products next year that we've pre-announced. That Japanese tool will be available in a few weeks." Not even Palm has a crystal ball to see how end users will want to integrate their PDAs and mobile phones over the next few years - or if they'll want them connected at all. In fact, Will admits the new Japanese PDA could be obsolete in several years: "(We're) experimenting along with our partners to see that we're well hedged. We don't know where the market is going to go, whether everyone's going to want an integrated wireless voice and data device or whether, as these technologies get smaller and thinner, they're actually going to want two devices, their phone and a data device they can actually look at while they're on the phone." Whether it's a one-device or two-device world, Palm's open platform has brought a new equation to a Japanese PDA market that had been shackled with proprietary vendors like Sharp(SHCAY: news, msgs) , which offers the Zaurus handheld. Sony (SNE: news, msgs) , IBM (IBM: news, msgs) , and Handspring (HAND: news, msgs) - all of which use Palm's OS - have introduced products over the past year. Eventually Palm may have a tough balancing act juggling market share with its licensees - Japan is not yet as large a market as the U.S. For now, though, with so many eyes on Japan's phone space, all the PDA makers are struggling with drawing attention to themselves. "We're trying not to compete with the mobile phone, we're trying to complement it. It's a great wireless tool, it's a great voice communications tool, it's got great simple data functionality but it also can be a great on-ramp as a wireless modem to the Internet," says Will. "We think we're just starting to see the fruits of the (marketing) strategy of this year. Our intent has always been to leverage the initial push of this year with some kick-ass products next year."