News
Issue #2002 - 10 (March 2002)
(Updated Mar. 13, 2002)

TECHNOLOGY

Upgrades For BlackBerry, Palm Devices

The war for your pocket space heated up Monday with the release of three new handheld computers.

Research In Motion Ltd. released the BlackBerry 5810, which the vendor calls the first wireless handheld with a built-in GSM/GPRS mobile phone. (GPRS, or General Packet Radio Service, lets GSM, or Global System for Mobile Communications, networks maintain always-on IP connections for E-mail and Web browsing.) The device has all the E-mail and organizer capabilities of a standard BlackBerry, but users can plug in a GSM card, use an integrated ear bud, and make voice calls or surf the Web through 
a number of cellular networks. The BlackBerry also uses Java 2 Micro Edition as its operating system, which RIM says will let business users easily upgrade applications and manage information wirelessly. The 5810 should retail for around $500 and will be sold through carriers AT&T Wireless and VoiceStream 
within 30 days.

The combination of voice and data device should prove useful to some business users, says Ken Smiley, a Giga Information group analyst. "It certainly gives you the capability to react faster to E-mail messages," he says, letting users who receive an E-mail push one button and call the sender on the phone. Of course, he points out, if a response is needed that urgently, it might make more sense for the sender to call rather than send an E-mail. 

Meanwhile, handheld bellwether Palm Inc. has released the Palm m515. It features a 65,000-color display and 16 Mbytes of memory, and retails for $399. Palm says it provides the tools mobile professionals need, including support for popular office software and an expansion slot allowing for add-on memory, 
keyboard, or modem. The vendor also unveiled the color m130, priced at $279, with just 8 Mbytes of memory. That makes it the lowest-priced color model in Palm's product line. Both models are on shelves now. But analyst Smiley says he doesn't believe the models will be big sellers to businesses, which are looking ahead to an expected midsummer release of models that will run Palm's pending OS 5. "Enterprises aren't going to invest in something like this because they're going to have to turn around 
and spend more later." - David M. Ewalt

More on PDAs
Putting Voices In The Palm Of Your Hand
http://update.informationweek.com/cgi-bin4/flo?y=eGHu0BdcZU0V20BWr70Aj

PDA Sales Remain Strong
http://update.informationweek.com/cgi-bin4/flo?y=eGHu0BdcZU0V20BWcl0AN

Mobileinfo Comments & Advisory: We want to congratulate RIM for staying ahead of the game and continuing to enhance its Blackberry with essential voice features. Now you can throw your cellular away and keep one device in the pocket. Initial response to 5810 is very warm. We expect that to continue.

Note: This news release may contain forward-looking statements. Readers should take appropriate caution in developing plans utilizing these products, services and technology architectures.  All trademarks used in this summary are the property of their respective owners.