HANDHELDS
The first trophy-class device to fulfill the languishing promise of handheld computing, 3Com's Palm is now facing the beast: Microsoft's Windows CE powers the PDAs of at least 10 competitors, including Casio, Compaq, and Philips. It doesn't help that Palm Computing founder Jeff Hawkins and partner Donna Dubinsky are now off on their own.
So what's parent 3Com's plan? To soak the market with variations of the original PalmPilot, appealing to different demographics. A wireless model - the Palm VII, with Internet connectivity, a "sometime in 1999" launch, and an $800 price tag - will succeed the Palm III and start a breeding frenzy. Palm OS licensee Qualcomm plans to release an industrial-strength exec-u-model, integrating organizer and cell phone in mid-'99, and an unnamed vendor is developing fiesta-colored kiddie machines that run games and educational software.
Yes, the Palm IV, V, and VI will eventually appear, says Mark Bercow, Palm's VP of strategic alliances and platform development. "Think of it like the BMW 300 series, 500 series, 700 series: There will be different products at different price points."
The variety approach gets two thumbs up from Hawkins and Dubinsky, who will continue to develop Palm software and hardware at their new company, Handspring. Palm Computing won't replace the duo with a top-dog visionary. Instead, it'll assign a fighter pilot/manager to each new device and a business-oriented flight commander for the whole operation.
In short, 3Com's overall aim is the digital equivalent of biodiversity, with which it hopes to defend Palm against extinction - aka Redmond. With over 2 million units now sold, and with Handspring and four other hardware manufacturers (among them IBM and Franklin Covey) licensing the Palm OS, 3Com has already begun seeding the handheld planet with species.
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