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Technology Stocks : Qualcomm Moderated Thread - please read rules before posting -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: foundation who wrote (5892)	1/6/2001 11:14:08 AM
From: Eric L	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 196764

re: Sprint PCS PDA-Phone << Sprint, Palm Alliance to Unleash CDMA Wireless >> >> Sprint PCS Stokes PDA-Phone Fire Malcolm Spicer CT Wireless Wireless Today January 8, 2001 Looking for another sign that handheld computers are becoming as popular as mobile telecom devices? Look no further than Sprint PCS' [PCS] (more) agreement to distribute PDAs from Palm [PALM] (more). The companies on Friday announced Sprint PCS will offer a co-branded version of the MyPalm portal Palm launched in November. It features access to e-mail, e-commerce and Web- browsing capabilities. For Sprint PCS, all the features offered by Palm devices point to one thing, said wireless industry analyst Eddie Hold of Current Analysis. "For Sprint, it's going to drive up one important thing, which is airtime minutes," Hold told Wireless Today. Most of those minutes, he added, most likely will be in e-mail usage. Mobile Web access, whether from a handset or a PDA, remains primarily a mobile e-mail tool for most users. "The best usage is going to be to leverage your cell phone for e-mail somehow," Hold said. Sprint PCS also announced its mobile Web users will be offered adapters to connect their MyPalms to their handsets. And later this year, Sprint PCS will offer modems to add voice capability to their Palm handhelds. Palm also announced it will continue increasing Web capabilities for its Palm OS products including handheld devices and PDA-like phones. Sprint intends to distribute Palm OS- based phones by June 2001. However, don't expect Sprint PCS to be the only wireless voice service player offering Palm handhelds for long, Hold said. "I would expect Palm to do more of these deals." Palm's agreement with Sprint PCS follows a similar agreement in mid-December between PDA vendor Handspring [HAND] (more) and Cingular Wireless, the joint venture of BellSouth [BLS] (more) and SBC Communications [SBC] (more). Handspring made its VisorPhone Springboard module, which enables voice service on GSM 1900 networks, available through Cingular, which operates GSM networks throughout California, Nevada, North Carolina and South Carolina and in eastern Tennessee and coastal Georgia. The Bottom Line Of course, Cingular and Sprint PCS are offering PDAs to their customers at the same time handset makers are touting their latest PDA-like phones. Given the less-than- impressive track record for earlier versions of PDA phones, we believe more mobile telecom users are interested in using PDAs for the mobile Web than in navigating PDA applications on their handsets. - Eric -