Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : 3Com Corporation (COMS) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: American Spirit who wrote (30560)	5/4/1999 8:53:00 PM
From: Richard P. Roberts	Respond to of 45548

Competition to wireless Palm. Addresses email address "problem" Palm has American Mobile Satellite to Unveil Wireless E-Mail That Organizes, Pages By QUENTIN HARDY Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL Seeking a slice of the growing market for advanced wireless devices for business, American Mobile Satellite Corp. Tuesday is to announce a wireless e-mail service that combines the features of an electronic organizer with that of an advanced two-way pager. The product, called eLink, allows users to send and receive messages that normally would go through their desktop e-mails, using their normal e-mail address. Most wireless e-mail products currently require their own special address, which can make the product tougher to use. The eLink pager also contains an address book and a calendar, as well as a way of hooking the product to a personal computer to add information, similar to 3Com Corp.'s popular Palm Pilot product. "Our research showed people didn't want a new e-mail address," with an e-mail pager, said Dan Croft, vice president of messaging services at American Mobile, "they just wanted to know 'what's on my desktop?' " Analysts said the Reston, Va., company's product differed from offerings from other companies, both in its ease of use and in changes in the business world that made wireless offerings increasingly attractive. "A lot of people in business believe that e-mail has become mission critical for them," said Andrew Seybold, an industry consultant based in Boulder Creek, Calif. "If it hits the market at the right price, there's a potential to sell millions of these things." The advanced pagers are expected to cost about $360, and the service another $60 a month. Mr. Seybold called the price "about the right start, but it will have to come down." Besides pricing issues, the product may face difficulties selling to some users because it is not compatible with e-mail from America Online Inc. -- which has a large e-mail presence on the Internet but has relatively few business customers -- though it works with most other systems. The offering may also spur competition between Skytel Communications Inc. of Jackson, Miss., which will be reselling American Mobile's product, and BellSouth Corp., the Atlanta-based telecommunications giant that offers its own family of two-way messaging devices for business.