 From the Editor (August 1999)
Palm OS and Win CE -- troubling growing pains
|
The dog days of summer are usually a slow time for
technology news, so it was a pleasant surprise to see quite a bit of summertime
activity in the pen and mobile sector this year. In this issue you'll find full
reviews of several landmark products, among them the sleek new Stylistic LT from
Fujitsu Personal Systems, Hitachi's Windows CE based "ePlate" pen tablet, and, of
course, the controversial Palm VII, 3Com's wireless experiment.
I'm sure I am not
the only one who's scratching his head over 3Com's release strategy for the Palm
VII. The device was announced last fall and information on it was readily
available. Yet, no official product shots existedÑnot really a big deal as it
looks just like a slightly longer Palm III with an antennaÑand 3Com seemed to
play this cat and mouse game with the press. Just as 3Com blindsided much of the
press with the Palm V and IIIx introduction, the company also never revealed the
release date of the Palm VII. I asked both in my capacity as editor-in-chief of
Pen Computing and as a contributor to Fortune magazine's Technology Buyer's Guide
where I am responsible for the mobile technology section but never got an answer.
When I finally got one of the 100 Palm VIIs 3Com gave away at DemoMobile 99 for a
Òfield test,Ó I had to sign a NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) that, incredibly,
was open-ended and hasn't been officially revoked.
I spent plenty of time with
the Palm VII and had a lot of feedback, but no one at 3Com seemed to be
interested in hearing it. E-mails went unanswered. The couple of "surveys" that
were sent during the field test were disappointingly shallow, self-serving, and
totally avoided the real problems the VII faces. But let me back up a bit. For
those who are not familiar with the Palm VII, it is basically a Palm III with a
wireless radio in it. You can send and receive wireless e-mail, and there are a
number of "web clippings" that you can use to find ATMs, flight schedules, the
weather, sports scores, news, and so on. All in all the VII comes with about 25
such mini applications, and you can download new ones from Palm's website.
So far
so good. Some of the apps are quite useful, others are too limited, and some are
mere infomercials to sign up for a pay service. I am a big basketball fan, so I
often checked the Sacramento Kings' scores during games on the ESPN applet and I
also used the VII to send e-mail when I travelled. When I checked the charges I
had accumulated after three weeks of moderate use, I was in for an unpleasant
surprise. Checking those scores and a few e-mails would have cost me over 90
dollars (we all had free accounts during the field trial). That's a big chunk of
change, especially since 3Com's rumor-marketing had sort of created the
impression that the wonderful wireless web access would be $9.99 a month. Well,
there is a $9.99 plan, but if you plan on using the VII at all, you'll use that
up in a few days. I eventually opted for the $24.99 plan but found myself so wary
of racking up big charges that I was almost afraid to use the VII at all. Not
exactly the kind of relationship you want with your organizer.
Then there's
coverage. The Palm VII uses the BellSouth Wireless Data network formerly known as
RAM MobileData. As far as wireless goes, it provides good coverage in over 260
metropolitan areas. Problem is that you never really know if you'll have coverage
or not. I witnessed a strong signal in rather deserted places and no signal at
all in some heavily populated areas. And once you enter certain types of
buildings, the signal goes away entirely.
Palm also neglected to exploit an
inherent advantage of wireless e-mail: instant notification. With the Palm VII,
you still have to go get your e-mail. My RIM Inter@active 950Ñan incredibly
useful deviceÑuses the same network but alerts me whenever an e-mail comes in. As
a result, I've stopped using the Palm VII altogether and went back to my RIM 950
for wireless e-mail.
I still think the Palm VII is a cool product and 3Com should
be applauded for sticking its neck out with exploring wireless functionality in a
consumer market device. They also did a marvelous job with the battery. Wireless
devices have a tendency to eat batteries alive. On the Palm VII, battery life
simply isn't an issue. It must be magic. However, between the VII's drab design,
a badly handled field trial, the refusal to work with the press on release
schedules, the cost of wireless service, and the coverage issue, the Palm VII
seems like a missed opportunity at best and a PR disaster at worst.
And that is
just one indication that all is not well at Palm. The platform clearly has a
great deal of momentum these days, partially due to the sheer brilliance of most
of Palm's products and partially due to Microsoft's seeming inability to provide
a clear direction for Windows CE. But what about the abrupt departure
(dismissal?) of former boss Robyn Abrams, the certain long-term impact of
founders Jeff Hawkins and Donna Dubinsky's departure, and the Palm legal
department's unfortunate tendency to send condescending letters to the press,
lecturing on how we are to refer to and describe Palm products? I'm not saying
the platform is in trouble (yet) and the relationship with the press can still be
repaired. Perhaps it's just a matter of someone within 3Com/Palm providing strong
guidance, or a stunner deal like Apple badged, iMac colored "iPalms." Now that'd
be nice.
As mentioned above, a good part of Palm's ongoing success is Microsoft's
inability to clearly explain what Windows CE is all about. This issue's big
"Jupiter" shootout shows that the original H/PC concept has morphed into
something entirely different, something which is increasingly difficult to
explain as more and more "B5" mini notebooks come to market. On the palm-size
front, the prospect of CE-powered multimedia devices is quite compelling. Casio's
E-100/105 is one hell of a technology demonstration and as full of potential as
any consumer electronics product in recent history. I hope Casio realizes what it
has in the E-100. A few enhancements here and there and a marketing push might
make the E-100 a megahit and create an entirely new class of devices: personal,
pocket-sized multimedia machines.
There is also much Windows CE action in the
vertical market arena. Over 20 industrial CE devices of varying ruggedness have
already been announced, and many more are in the works. Some of the major players
in industrial mobile computing are pretty much betting their future on Windows
CE. Microsoft's mini OS is uniquely suited for the task even though porting
existing applications to Windows CE has turned out to be a much bigger headache
than Microsoft led developers to believe. That's because CE only supports a
fraction of Windows' APIs, and there will inevitably be something in an
application that CE doesn't support. Intermec's Norand division, for example, has
so far invested 7,800 personhours in CE conversions of its main applications.
Nonetheless, we're all used to Microsoft taking a few revs to get it right, and
CE may soon come into its own.
As far as other platforms go, just when we were
ready to declare Psion officially dead on the US market, the UK company releases
the terrific Series 5mx and teases us with a Jupiter-sized, StrongARM-powered,
color Psion code-named "Jedi" (see PenNews page 11). It is a truly superior
device in every respect and we sincerely hope it will help keeping Psion's US
mobile computing presence alive.
In this issue you'll find an interesting mix of
features. Executive editor David MacNeill spent days on end installing alternate
operating systems on his notebook, investigating their suitability for mobile
computing (see "Linux Goes Mobile" on page 38). Fujitsu Personal Systems' new
Stylistic LT provides all the power of the flagship Stylistic 2300 at roughly
half the size and weight, sacrificing only battery life and a degree of
ruggedness in the process. Hitachi's new SH-4 powered "ePlate" Windows CE tablet
straddles the consumer and the vertical market both in design and features. We're
impressed. The latest Frisbee from Ramline has become a surprisingly mature
product with absolutely the brightest LCD we've ever seen. We also reviewed the
latest member of Mitsubishi's AMiTY series of pen tablets, the AMiTY XP. It's
much tougher than its filigreed predecessors and joint marketing with Symbol
Technologies should result in much higher market penetration.
In this issue
you'll also find some of the results of our exhaustive benchmark testing of every
Windows CE device that passes the doors of our editorial offices. Unlike Intel
processors and their clones, the various families of RISC processors used in CE
devices actually have very different performance characteristics, excelling in
certain areas and lagging in others. This could be of significant importance to
anyone planning a CE device for a particular, narrowly defined purpose. Picking
the right processor family for the job could result in a huge performance
advantage. -
-Conrad H. Blickenstorfer is editor-in-chief of Pen Computing Magazine and general editor of Digital Camera Magazine. He is also a mobile technology contributor to the Fortune Magazine Technology Buyer's Guide.
|
