Schwartz, Ephraim

May 20, 2003

Originally Published:20030428.

PALM IS ATTEMPTING to play catch up with its Pocket PC OEM rivals and to beat Microsoft's timeline to give it the edge. Next month Palm Solutions Group will ship the Tungsten C, a month earlier than Microsoft's next generation Pocket PC 2003 OS, code-named Ozone.

The Tungsten C will be the first Palm handheld with 64MB of memory, built-in IEEE 802.11b, and a keyboard. It will supposedly offer six hours of battery life under full and constant usage with Wi-Fi and display activated. Its browser will support JavaScript.

But according to sources, Microsoft's Ozone is merely a maintenance upgrade that will take care of bugs. It will also offer an improved VPN client and may include VoIP software. Microsoft will not increase the screen resolution nor provide a landscape mode, which will give the advantage to Palm, according to Todd Kort, principal analyst at Gartner Dataquest in San Jose, Calif. "Microsoft's Mobility Group seems to be putting most of its resources into the Smartphone OS," he said.

Kort said Microsoft is concerned that a handheld with too much power could cannibalize sales of laptops or Tablet PCs. "They can make as much as $500 on the sale of a laptop, if you count in Office. When they sell a PDA, it's small beans,"he said.

On the software side, Palm in partnership with IBM will create in May a set of APIs to connect Palm's VersaMail client directly to Domino Lotus Notes Server. Using DataViz's Documents to Go Version 6, the device will have full Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint compatibility. Documents to Go will also open text and graphics when the attachment icon is tapped once.

On the consumer side, Palm will also introduce the Zire 71 priced at $299.

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