It has been a year since the announcement of the Palm VII, and many changes have happened in the Palm Economy. Five new machines have been announced since November 1998, and two companies have joined the licensee pool. It was time for a wild show of uncontrolled enthusiasm for a product that is taking off like the PC.

But that didn't happen, and the reason was the pending IPO (Initial Public Offering) of the independent Palm Computing, the first publicly traded handheld computer manufacturer. Lawyers and the SEC told them that there should be no enthusiasm at this show, nothing to pump up the price and create a drive on the stock when it is finally released. Just business as usual. No enthusiasm. At a developer's conference. They did well, unfortunately, but you could see them holding back.

I would be willing to bet the press would have received beta units of a Palm with a color screen, were it not for the SEC requirements. But no product was announced. The new OS 3.5, however, has a color API, and Motorola announced their new DragonBall VZ with support for 256 colors, running at 33MHz. All the pieces are in place for a color Palm, but at the press luncheon they emphasized that any new machine with color must have a high "wow" factor. It must maintain battery life similar to the black and white machines.

Other future talk included the new deal with Nokia. They appear to be mulling how they will lay the Palm OS over top of EPOC32 without creating a kludge, and while maintaining compatibility with legacy applications. They say they've already thrown out the idea of emulation, and wisely so. Future versions of the OS (4.0) will be processor and kernel independent to maximize OS portability. They also reiterated their commitment to Web Clipping over WAP, because WAP is designed specifically for smaller screens. That's good news for those invested in Palm VII, both programmers and owners.

Also announced at the show were Palm HotSync Server software and Palm Ethernet Cradle, both designed to give Palm a secure place in the corporate enterprise space. Using HotSync Server, companies will be able to give a Palm access to the corporate server information, whether through a desktop computer, the Ethernet Cradle, or via telephone. IS Managers will be able to monitor and determine what information is allowed into each machine.

The showroom floor wasn't huge, I'm afraid, but many companies managed to fit themselves in there. It was disappointing that Handspring didn't have all twenty of the Springboard vendors they had at the Internet World show. There were all of about five vendors present in their booth. This was likely due to both the constricted space and the developer audience; I'm sure we'll see more vendors at Comdex, a considerably more public show.

Speakers and presentations were interesting and informative. It was good to see the people who will be leading Palm into its independence. Main speakers were Eric Benhamou, CEO of 3Com, Alan Kessler, President of Palm Computing, John Chambers, President and CEO of Cisco Systems, Mark Bercow, Platform President of Palm Computing, Christine Comaford of Artemis Ventures, and, of course, Jeff Hawkins, Founder, Chairman and CPO of Handspring. The most engaging speaker of them all was John Chambers of Cisco Systems. It was unusual, first of all, for the CEO of 3Com's major competitor to be speaking at one of their main shows, but the man himself commanded attention. It was immediately clear to me why Cisco Systems is doing so well with a man like this at the helm.

Jeff Hawkins was another speaker who packed the hall, and it was just an enjoyable chat with Jeff, so it was a treat. He's a very down-to-earth, no-nonsense guy. Before he spoke, many people were coming up to chat with him. Sitting only three seats away, I heard most of them start out with, "I just want to thank you, you changed my life."

I can relate.

-Shawn Barnett