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From The Editor
by WDN Staff, April 12, 2000
...And Then There Were Four: RIM Validates The Future Of Wireless Computing
The mobile computing and wireless data industries are in such a state of flux at the current time that industry watchers
can't decide whether technologies such as WAP, the PDA, and Bluetooth will become extremely popular or whether they will all become
historical technological footnotes as we move on to bigger and better things. Some routinely point out WAP's problems (ignoring its strengths) and
declare it to be dead on arrival. Others look at Palm Computing's dominant market share in the PDA space and declare the war to be over. To be sure,
an industry with one dominant market leader often suffers from effective innovation and competition (where have we seen that before?!?). To this end,
a few months back it had begun to look like the PDA world would settle into an end-game with the three major players: Palm with their PalmOS entry,
Microsoft and their Windows CE OS, and the Symbian EPOC devices that have struggled to find a foothold across most of the world. Advanced pagers
(such as those from Motorola and Research In Motion) offered some wireless capabilities such as email and scheduling, but really weren't full-fledged
wireless computing devices due to extensibility limitations. In terms of
wireless innovations, Palm has led the way with the introduction of the Palm VII wireless organizer in 1999. The Palm VII is an engineering marvel
and the design is both simple and elegant. From a developer's viewpoint, however, it does leave a few things to be desired. All wireless access (emails,
applications, etc.) must occur through the Palm.net service and applications must be built using Palm's proprietary Palm Query Application (PQA) format.
It's not a big problem but it represents one additional platform to consider when building an application.
Then, along came Research In Motion yesterday (April 11) with their announcement of a new PDA: the RIM 957 Wireless Handheld (see figure below). This product contains
some very interesting capabilities that I believe make it the first of its kind on the market. To begin with, it runs the venerable Intel 80386 microprocessor.
I'm sure the hardware hackers that dissected the I-Opener product are licking their chops over this one, but that's
another story. It also includes an embedded wireless modem, 5 MB Intel flash memory, a thumb-operated trackwheel (just like the popular RIM pagers), notification
alerts (in the form of vibrations, tones, and an on-screen indicator), and integrated Blackberry 2.0 software.
The RIM 957 Wireless Handheld
The Blackberry 2.0 software solution is available in three versions: the Exchange Edition (for corporate users of Microsoft Exchange), the Internet
edition, and the Notes edition (for coporate users of Lotus Notes). Also available is a separate Blackberry Enterprise Server product that offers the
ability to perform performance monitoring as well as track assets and security configurations.
In addition to offering the ability to integrate your handheld devices in a seamless manner with your enterprise Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Notes
installations, the 957 Wireless Handheld offers four additional features that set it apart from the Palm VII (it's primary competitor in the wireless
PDA market). To begin with, it includes an actual, albeit tiny, keyboard that will certainly appeal to many first-time PDA users. Old-time Palm users
may love Graffiti, but I know from personal experience that many "newbies" are intimidated by the prospect of learning it. The 957 also includes the ability (through the Blackberry Internet Edition) to access any internet email address as opposed to the Palm VII's
restrictive iMessenger client that only checks your Palm.net address. Also included with the 957 is support for North America's two leading wide-area
wireless data networks: the Ardis network, run by American Mobile, and the BellSouth
Wireless Data network, the network used by the Palm VII. Between these two networks, the 957 offers good coverage to virtually all populated areas of the United States
and Canada. Finally, RIM has announced plans to include a built-in WAP microbrowser from Neomar that will work with
Neomar's WAP Gateway. (I'm assuming that these gateways will be installed on the BellSouth Wireless Data and Ardis networks which leads me to wonder whether
other users on these networks can make use of these gateways. If you know the answer to this, let me know.)
Despite basing their handheld device on an OS that few developers are familiar with, RIM has managed to create an open, extensible solution
through their support of open messaging and WAP. If you're interested in building apps for the 957, you can download free SDKs here.
If not, WAP support does the PQA format one better: it is a standard that many developers are already building applications to. In a way, it serves to
validate WAP and further underlines the networked world we now live and work in. The client operating system is becoming less important as each day
goes by. In exchange, support for the standards and recognized protocols has become an absolute must if you want your application or device to become
widely accepted. There is no way of knowing whether RIM's 957 product will be a success. However, they have demonstrated that is possible to retain
your own design preferences and still succeed so long as you are willing to integrate with other vendors and technologies.
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