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Palm responds to criticism of wireless strategy

Palm Computing, having announced a database development package that doesn't work on European models of the Palm, has responded to criticism by explaining why two US models - the Palm VII and Palm i70 - aren't for sale outside the US.

Full answers are promised for next week, when Palm staff get back from a French meeting; but in the meanwhile, some background:

* Palm VII and Palm i705 in the US allow wireless remote access to email, Internet, and so on. They don't use the emerging 1.9 GHz GSM frequency services in the US, but are based on a packet data service from Mobitex.

* These 2 devices are not available in Europe due to the fact that although Mobitex services are available in Europe, they use a different Mobitex frequency to the US, and while there are several inconsistent Mobitex frequencies throughout Europe, GSM/GPRS networks are more widely available throughout Europe. So European Palm users are expected to use GSM as a better option.

* Palm Bluetooth cards are now available in the UK and can be used with m500, m505, m515, m130 and m125 Palm devices. This is perfectly true, but, as we pointed out in an earlier report the gap between launch in April 2001 and availability in March 2002 was impressive. And the announcement of availability misleadingly implied that it was a US-only release.

* The Bluetooth card allows Palm devices to work on the GPRS network, through wireless connections with GPRS mobile phones. This offers a very efficient, neat and cost effective solution for Palm users (both corporate and consumer) to take full advantage of the GPRS network within the UK.

* Palm have chosen this route (Bluetooth) within the UK, at the moment, to take full advantage of GPRS without jeopardising the form factor, cost or power consumption of their devices, until the GPRS network matures within Europe.

* The GPRS network is set to go through some technical changes, to introduce Packet Broadcast Control Channel. Until these changes are made, and the GPRS network fully matures, Palm will continue to use Bluetooth cards, as this is an effective and elegant solution which delivers what the users need.

* Once the GPRS network is fully mature, and can offer Palm users exactly what they require, Palm will most certainly integrate GPRS into Palm devices.

All of which is useful information! - but still leaves us fascinated to know why the database access development software can't be adapted to GPRS use, and (assuming, as we expect to learn, that it can be) why it can't be released in non-US markets.

Palm has promised to respond to these questions as soon as possible.

The new software is - as the earlier story today pointed out, Palm's first "open" handheld software that can support development of a single application that can be deployed to a Palm Powered(TM) or a Microsoft Pocket PC device. Palm is releasing WDBAS developer seats now, and will be make a WDBAS Enterprise Edition available later this year. The Enterprise Edition will include deployment licenses and additional advanced features.