Feb-March 2003

Handheld computer pioneer Palm has launched itself into America's corporate mobile email market with a product called the i705 wireless handheld.

In this initiative it is following in the footsteps of Blackberry and a growing number of specialist Pocket PC developers, while in the UK it now also has to compete with Transcomm's new Grapevine service.

The i705 handheld can handle up to eight email accounts, and can notify users of incoming messages via LED, sound or vibration. Expansion is offered by way of a Secure Digital (SD) card slot. The company will also be selling an optional Palm mini-keyboard, which slips over the i705 and offers thumb typing.

Handling document access is the Documents To Go 4.0 Professional Edition application from DataViz, while email management taken care of by Palm's own MultiMail Deluxe application. Back at the office, the company is providing an application called MultiMail Deluxe Desktop Link, which works with Microsoft Outlook and runs continuously in the background.

 

There is also a heavyweight enterprise-class software product, the Palm i705 Wireless Messaging Solution, which is aimed at "large deployments".

Underpinning the mobile network is something called Palm.Net service, which is provided in the US by Cingular Wireless's Mobitex-based packet data network. Access costs $35 per month.

The i705 itself is based on the Palm OS 4.1 platform, and has a 33MHz Motorola Dragonball VZ processor, 8MB of RAM and 4MB of Flash ROM.