Users who buy the wireless Palm VII will pay up to US$599 -- more than any user has ever paid for a PalmPilot. Its biggest promise is wireless access. But there is a string attached: The new Palm doesn't browse the World Wide Web.
"The Palm VII is not meant to be a replacement for your desktop browser. This is not a good device for browsing the Internet," said Tammy Medanich, product manager for the Palm VII.
Instead of the Web, users will be able to surf "Web-clipping" services provided by a range of third parties. Twenty-two Web-clipping applications are provided out of the box. Each is customized to deliver stock quotes, weather information, flight information, and traffic data to Palm VII users.
Content providers run the gamut from news by USA Today and financial information from The Wall Street Journal interactive edition to people searches from Yahoo.
It's so different from the regular Web that 3Com had to build a new infrastructure to serve this new content. Since it's dipping its toe into brand-new, ISP waters, the company will roll out service Monday only in the New York tri-state area before trying to take on the whole country come fall.
Is a cross-section of Web-like content going to draw new customers to a device that costs $599, plus $9.99 a month for Web-clipping?
"For the price they're asking, they're not adding a lot of features or value. For the same or less cash, one can buy an older Palm[Pilot] and a more standards-based wireless solution," said PalmPilot user John Riney.
Wireless add-on products such as the Novatel Wireless Minstrel -- a 19.2-Kbps wireless modem for existing PalmPilots -- bring the full Web to Pilot users, he noted.
This and other PalmPilot products demonstrate that PalmPilots are more than capable of handling the Internet "as is" -- without filtering or "clipping."
"If it turns out that the Palm VII won't be able to work with the numerous TCP/IP [Internet-standard]-based applications in existence, which looks to be the case, we may be looking at a definite lemon," Riney said.
"It's a whole different user model," Medanich countered. "With Palm devices, people turn them on 13 times a day, and they are on for just a couple of seconds -- to look up a phone number and [then they] turn the device off."
The same goes for wireless access -- users need a limited set of data services for short periods. That limitation is the main turn-off for some would-be Palm VII users.
