.KEYWORD palmsource
.FLYINGHEAD PALM ANNOUNCEMENTS
.TITLE PalmSource 2000 in review
.FEATURE
.SUMMARY Palm made a number of big announcements this past month at the annual PalmSource developers’ conference in Santa Clara, CA. Steve Niles has a rundown of the news you might have missed.
.AUTHOR Steve Niles
The PalmSource developer’s conference is perhaps the biggest event of the year for Palm, Inc. This year, it was held December 12-15 in Santa Clara, CA at the Santa Clara Convention Center. The more than 3,000 attendees used the conference to network with other consumer, Web, and education developers, licensees, enterprise managers and solution providers, IT managers, VARs and system integrators, as well as key members of the Palm marketing, engineering, and executive teams.
The event naturally garnered a good deal of press, which the PalmPower Enterprise News Center, at http://www.palmpowerenterprise.com/news/news.html, diligently monitored, because so much of the news was enterprise-related. Palm made a number of exciting announcements over the course of the week, and we thought it would be valuable to review them here for those of you who weren’t aware of, or didn’t get a chance to check, the daily news updates.
.H1 Palm vision
Things got off to a great start as Palm’s Chief Executive Officer Carl Yankowski delivered a keynote address to kick off the first day. The biggest announcement was, of course, the version 4.0 of the Palm OS. The new version supports 16-bit color, USB connections, and Bluetooth wireless connectivity. The fun didn’t stop there, however. Yankowski also hinted at Palm OS version 5.0, which will allow for a higher resolution screen.
In the address, Yankowski laid out his vision for handheld computing and announced several other important new technology plans and relationships. Among Yankowski’s announcements were the following:
.BEGIN_LIST
.BULLET A range of new wireless modems and integrated wireless handhelds are scheduled for the Palm platform, which will allow you to access most of the world’s major wireless networks, including CDPD, CDMA, GSM, GPRS, PDC, and Mobitex;
.END_LIST
.BEGIN_LIST
.BULLET Samsung became a new licensee of the Palm OS platform, and the company is developing a new Palm OS-based smartphone due to be released in the first half of 2001;
.END_LIST
.BEGIN_LIST
.BULLET The Palm Economy Association will debut later in the year, to be led by independently elected officers.
.END_LIST
Also in his keynote address, Yankowski outlined a six-part, near-term vision for the company. First, he believes it’s Palm’s heritage to provide a world-class PIM (Personal Information Manager). Further, Palm is taking its PIM to the Internet. Palm has recently acquired AnyDay.com and is leveraging this acquisition by creating the MyPalm portal, which will include wireless email, online calendar synchronization, browsing, Web searching, and an array of online content and services. The MyPalm portal became available on December 26, 2000 and is available free of charge at http://www.palm.net.
In what Yankowski described as Communication Phase 1, Palm will extend its existing email solutions to include message notification, instant messaging, and seamless access to Microsoft Exchange email. All this is set to take place in 2001. In Communication Phase 2, Palm plans to add voice to the mix. This will first be done via telephony. In fact, Kyocera and Handspring already sell Palm OS-based smartphones, and Palm is working with them and Motorola, Nokia, and Samsung to develop next-generation smartphones. The Kyocera Smartphone is pictured in Figure A.
.FIGPAIR A The Kyocera QCP 6035 Smartphone unites the power of a cell phone and a Palm OS-based organizer.
As mentioned above, Samsung Electronics announced that it had licensed the Palm OS platform for use in wireless intelligent terminals. The agreement will allow Samsung to develop a family of handheld smartphones that will be wholly compatible with all Palm OS-based applications. The first product is slated to be a CDMA handset that’s expected to be available in North America in the second quarter of 2001.
Yankowski then moved on to what he called Security Phase 1, in which Palm handhelds will be used as passkeys and to perform services associated with a wallet. Possible uses include repositories for a driver’s license, a passport, and credit cards. In Security Phase 2, Palm is counting on industry infrastructure to mature to the point where Palm handhelds will be used as electronic wallets, conducting secure transactions, including payments, corporate transactions, offline banking, and customized "me-commerce." VeriFone, which produces secure transaction terminals, has already announced collaboration with Palm toward this end, and Yankowski said more announcements are imminent.
.H1 Palm in the enterprise
The second day of PalmSource was kicked off with a keynote address by Palm’s Chief Operating Officer, Alan Kessler. Kessler’s focus was Palm’s initiatives in the corporate marketplace. According to Kessler, Palm has already established a considerable presence in this arena, citing that 40 percent of Palm devices are paid for or reimbursed by businesses. Meanwhile, a full 80 percent of Palm devices are already synchronized at work. Kessler then introduced the company’s new Vice President of Enterprise, Jerry Jalaba.
Other announcements made on the second day of PalmSource included the following:
.BEGIN_LIST
.BULLET Sun Microsystems, Inc. announced that it will ship a developer release of Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition (J2ME), and the Mobile Information Device (MID) profile for the Palm OS platform.
.END_LIST
.BEGIN_LIST
.BULLET Palm announced its Solutions Market Place, a database of applications showing the projects on which developers are working on the Web.
.END_LIST
.BEGIN_LIST
.BULLET Palm and AppForge, Inc. announced that Palm has obtained a license to distribute AppForge Booster runtime software, which will allow you to run Virtual Basic applications developed for the Palm OS using the AppForge development platform and Microsoft Visual Basic.
.END_LIST
.H1 A model Palm device user
Finally, PalmSource attendees were treated to a visit from supermodel Claudia Schiffer, who was there to announce that her Palm Vx Claudia Schiffer Edition is now available on her Web site at http://www.claudiaschiffer.com. Schiffer helped design this limited edition model by picking out the color. It’s an aqua metallic blue, as you can see in Figure B.
.FIGPAIR B The Palm Vx Claudia Schiffer Edition comes in an attractive aqua metallic blue.
The device also comes pre-loaded with some of Schiffer’s favorite applications, including a guide to New York and London, image software that allows you to see photos on your Palm device, a Claudia puzzle, diet software, and a fitness tracker. Schiffer hopes the device will draw more women to the world of Palm computing, working under the assumption, one supposes, that women are primarily interested in shiny things and dieting.
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.H1 Conclusion
Schiffer’s Palm Vx aside, the overall theme of this year’s PalmSource was not on new devices, but on licensing the Palm OS to new hardware manufacturers and on increasing and improving wireless Internet access. As competition increases, Palm believes its best bet for remaining king of the handheld marketplace is by putting the focus on software and wireless services. The danger some critics see in the changes being made in Palm OS 4.0 and 5.0 is that Palm may alienate some of its longtime fans by sacrificing the highly valued simplicity of the operating system. However, Yankowski maintains that even as these new features and services are added, the key to staying on top is in keeping things simple. Here’s hoping Palm continues its great success at treading that very fine line.
.BEGIN_SIDEBAR
.H1 Product availability and resources
For more information on PalmSource, visit http://www.palmsource.com.
For the PalmPower News Center, visit http://www.palmpower.com/news/news.html.
For the PalmPower Enterprise News Center, visit http://www.palmpowerenterprise.com/news/news.html.
For more information on Bluetooth, visit http://www.bluetooth.com.
For more information on Samsung Electronics, visit http://www.samsung.com.
For more information on MyPalm, visit http://www.palm.net.
For more information on Microsoft Exchange, visit http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/.
For more information on Kyocera Smartphone, visit http://www.kyocera.com/News/displaypress.cfm?PressID=95.
For more information on Handspring’s VisorPhone, visit http://www.handspring.com/products/visorphone/.
For more information on Motorola, visit http://www.motorola.com.
For more information on Nokia, visit http://www.nokia.com.
For more information on VeriFone, visit http://www.verifone.com.
For more information on Sun Microsystems, Inc., visit http://www.sun.com.
For more information on AppForge, Inc., visit http://www.appforge.com.
For more information on the Palm Vx Claudia Schiffer Edition, visit http://www.claudiaschiffer.com.
For more information about Palm computers, visit http://www.palm.com.
.H1 Bulk reprints
Bulk reprints of this article (in quantities of 100 or more) are available for a fee from Reprint Services, a ZATZ business partner. Contact them at reprints@zatz.com or by calling 1-800-217-7874.
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.BIO
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