palmOne Needs to Get on the Wi-Fi Bandwagon

Ed Hardy · 08-26-2004, 01:39 PM

Brighthand's Editor-in-Chief warns the leading maker of Palm OS handhelds that it needs to fully commit to Wi-Fi wireless networking if it wants to keep up with its competitors.

Read more at http://www.brighthand.com/article/pa...agon?site=Palm

smalley · 08-26-2004, 02:02 PM

$300 for wi-fi? Try $200. Dell already has its x30 at about $280 for bluetooth and wi-fi with 64mb of RAM. Palm had better get on this quick. I know a lot of people jumping ship to Pocket PCs because they want cheap wi-fi

amacaddict · 08-26-2004, 02:19 PM

PalmOne needs to release handhelds with regularly-powered SD card slots so that more SD cards would work. Take for instance the Treo 600. Yes, I know battery life is a huge concern, but the option should be there for the consumer to use either a BT or WiFi card.

imported_palmhiker · 08-26-2004, 02:41 PM

From the initial rumors, it looks like the T-4 will NOT have built-in Wi-Fi, which, in my opinion, is a huge mistake. We can only hope that Palm is working on a new version of the T-C, and possibly a lower-end Wi-Fi enabled unit.

I believe that early on, Palm bet the farm that bluetooth would be the holy grail, and they are having a hard time admitting they were wrong and that people actually want *both* bluetooth and Wi-Fi in a handheld.

palmhiker
(who very nearly purchased an Axim X30 to get WiFi, but "settled" for a T-C at an excellent price and is somewhat happy for now. By the way, the Wi-Fi performance of the T-C is not all that bad)

d-roC · 08-26-2004, 03:01 PM

Though I can agree that P1 will need at least one new model with built in WiFi this fall, I can understand one reason why they have not inculded it to this point - power consumption. I think, or at least it seems that, P1 has been about making devices that will give you as much usage as possible with the size of the battery that is offered. With the smaller TI and Intel Chips that have built on wifi support, this may not be as much an issue, but it was over a year ago for a cash-strapped P1. Things could be different now and P1 may be ready to step up to the plate. I just dont think that they just want to swing with wifi, they want to do a TC like thing and hit a scoring run with whatever they release.

Thinking about the timing of this article as well as Cobalt-a-comin makes me think that there wil be a new TC (TC2?) that will have both wifi and BT. I think that P1 wants a model at the top of its line that has both. There may also be a model with just wifi, and I forsee most new midrange and upper crest P1 models having BT by the Spring model cycle. How about BT for all Tungsten models starting with the Fall rollout (E2, T4 TC2 or whatever the names) and then at least one wifi/BT model? Just a thought.

Gekko · 08-26-2004, 03:17 PM

>"Though I can agree that P1 will need at least one new model with built in WiFi this fall, I can understand one reason why they have not inculded it to this point - power consumption."

This is a BS excuse for P1. With the ability to turn the WiFi on/off as needed, battery life is not an issue. Turn it on, check email, turn it off.

ktdan1 · 08-26-2004, 03:28 PM

With Sony out of the picture(for now) it will be intersting to see if Palm can push it self in the creation, inovation and price points in there products. Come out with a full featured product with outstanding price point.

If they fall back to thier old habits of trying to dictate what the consumers needs are then the end is coming sooner than later.

At least they have the Treo 600, O yes Handspring thought that one up, not Palm.

Well at least they can build on Handsprings Inovation.

rogerrub · 08-26-2004, 04:02 PM

I agree that Palm desperately needs Wi-Fi capability to compete, and you make an excellent point about VoIP. I use the Vonage system and their "Softphone" is available for Pocket PC's but not Palm OS, despite Sony and Palm having some Wi-Fi models. I think they need to see Palm is serious about Wi-Fi.

However, Palm PDA's also need a way to connect to the Internet via Ethernet cable. Many hotels offer Internet service in their rooms, but not via Wi-Fi. They expect you to connect to an Ethernet cable. (Some chains also offer a USB cable option.) There has to be a way to connect to these Internet access points, too, for Palms to truly be able to access the Internet anywhere, any time.

livefaith · 08-26-2004, 04:42 PM

Kevin,

While P1 has certainly rested on many laurels of the past few product cycles (m100, m500, TW etc), I'm not sure that they are guilty of only this. Remember the specs on the TC when it hi and how it "smoked tater" with 400mhz on the tiny Palm OS + relatively massive memory + WiFi + built in keyboard + tiny. Excluding the cheesy plastic casing and thickness, that was pretty awesome. Then the T3 with the killer screen, landscape capability, small size, 400mhz, 64mb hit soon thereafter at a $400 price point. Neither was too shabby and the T3 still sells at the original $400, albeit with some incentives.

While I've been disappointed > once, I expect the new releases in a month or so to leapfrog most in the PPC camp. Nice VGA screens I bet, but I am highly underwhelmed by the new iPaqs. Compaq engineers must be sickened. Saw a absolutely grilling review somewhere the other day on that new entry level boxy iPaq ... it was pretty nasty.

I like P1s new attack so far. We'll know very soon tho.

Ed,
I totally agree on the WiFi and feel P1 will certainly move that way too. With those non-disclosure thingy's hanging out there, do I sense that you wrote that article on the keyboard of new Cobalt handheld? Hmmmmm.

imported_Possum · 08-26-2004, 05:00 PM

While I agree that there is a definite urgency for Palm to completely jump on the WiFi bandwagon, I also think this article is a bit misleading.

It seems to indicate (to anyone who is unfamiliar with the available wireless technologies) that only Wifi is capable of connecting you to your e-mail or the web while you are away from a cradle.

Bluetooth is perfectly capable of doing this, except at slower speeds, with the advantage that you don't have to find wifi hotspots. It is possible through cell phone services at many more locations, plus bluetooth connecting points can be set up for home use.

It may not be as fast, but it does have the advantage of lower battery consumption.

Again, I agree that not providing wifi hardware would be a terrible mistake, but it's just not right to suggest that these functions can only be used through wifi.

Funny that future technology like video chat on handhelds that would be possible with wifi but absolutely useless with bluetooth were not mentioned.