3Com Rolls Out New Developer Program to Bring Internet Content to the
Palm VII Connected Organizer
BW - 01:16 p.m Dec 02, 1998 Eastern
SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 2, 1998--
3Com Corporation (Nasdaq:COMS) today introduced an
aggressive new program designed to enable web developers and
Internet content providers to easily provide Internet-based
information wirelessly to users of the upcoming Palm VII(TM)
connected organizer from Palm Computing, Inc., a 3Com
company. Through this program, 3Com will offer a free and
comprehensive set of tools, technical resources and services for
quickly and conveniently making information residing on existing
web sites accessible to users of the Palm VII organizer. This
program is the next step in 3Com's strategy to rapidly bring a broad
range of wireless information access and e-commerce solutions to
the industry-leading Palm Computing(R) platform. The Palm VII
organizer is expected to be available in 1999.
Announced today at the second annual Palm Computing Platform
Worldwide Developer Conference, the Palm VII organizer is the
first-ever all-in-one handheld solution for wireless Internet access
and two-way personal communications. It provides fast, easy and
secure access to personal, business and Internet information. With
the Palm VII organizer, 3Com also introduces a revolutionary new
model for accessing Internet information called "web clipping" -- a
means of extracting only a specific set of needed information from a
web site. Because the Palm VII organizer is secured by technology
from Certicom, the industry*s leading provider of security
solutions for wireless and Internet-based environments, high-level
applications such as electronic purchases, online banking and
over-the-air stock trading can be safely deployed.
"As the worldwide handheld market leader, we eagerly accept the
responsibility of enabling the rapid deployment of web-based
solutions that will enrich the lives of our customers in many ways,"
said Mark Bercow, vice president of strategic alliances and platform
development for Palm Computing. "This program opens up our
already widely-adopted platform to an entirely new segment of
developers and partners. With many leading web content providers
already on board, we expect to see the amount of Internet activity
based on our new Palm VII organizer to increase greatly over the
next year."
The development tools provide a simple and intuitive interface for
building Palm(TM) query applications that can be downloaded from
the desktop to the Palm VII organizer. Query applications are
easy-to-use forms that Palm VII device owners use to quickly
request a specific set of desired information such as flight schedules
and fares or the latest sports or stock market headlines from a
specific site on the Internet. The tools used to build query
applications are based on standard HTML, so developers can build
and deploy them with little to no learning curve involved.
The development tools and resources for free download at the time
of the field trial in early 1999 will be available at
www.palm.net/devzone. These include a style guide, quick start
guide, FAQ, code samples, utilities, a Palm OS software emulator
for testing newly built query applications and full documentation.
The Palm.Net(TM) site will feature an area that allows developers
to submit query applications for inclusion in a central database and
identification to the Palm Developer Marketing team.
Upon submission to the Palm.Net site, a query application will be
reviewed and tested for quality assurance by Palm Computing. If
approved the query application will be placed in the public area
within the Palm.Net sight and made available to customers both for
keyword search and download. Keywords search capabilities
including "hotlist" (most frequently downloaded) and "what's new"
(recently uploaded) will assist Palm VII organizer users in finding
interesting and useful query applications.
More than 20 of the world's leading Internet content providers have
already built query applications that ship with the Palm VII
organizer, including ABCNEWS.com, Bank of America,
ESPN.com, Etak, E*TRADE, Fodor's, Frommer's, MapQuest,
MasterCard, Merriam-Webster, Moviefone, OAG, TheStreet.com,
Ticketmaster, Travelocity, UPS, USA Today, U.S. West, Visa
International, The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition, The
Weather Channel and Yahoo!. About 3Com Corporation
With more than 200 million customers worldwide, 3Com
Corporation connects more people in more ways to information
than any other networking company. 3Com delivers innovative
information access products and network system solutions to large,
medium and small enterprises; carriers and network service
providers; PC OEMs; and consumers. 3Com(R) More
connected(TM). For further information, visit 3Com's World Wide
Web site at www.3com.com or the press site at
www.3com.com/pressbox or Palm Computing at www.palm.com.
Copyright 1998, Business
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