The Palm has so far been focusing on standalone functionalities, but like other pocket-size gadgets, the palm wants to become wireless, and take a share of the wonderful futere of wireless internet services.

So far the communication abilities of the Palm has been limited. The communication mode for Palm devices has so far been focused on the synchronisation model, where the Palm synchronize with the PC when connected (by wire). With a computer connected to the internet, this gives the opportunity of syncing the Palm to the content of a web site, like a new paper. Offline browsing has been used as a term to describe this.

With the limitations and prices of wireless bandwith this model seems sensible. But with bandwith of wireless data increasing, prices falling, and the number of wireless subscribers increase, 3Com and others feel dollars in the air. That's why Palm and others now try to find the right model for delivering content to their handheld devices.

3Com's approach to wireless data is Palm VII, at least for the time being. Palm VII is initially developed for the US market, using Mobitex as the bearer. Mobitex is a very limited data only bearer, and the capabilities is very limited. Palm is not implementing a browser on the Palm VII, but a service oriented concept called Web Clipping. The Web Clipping is based on html, but there is no ordinary browser on the Palm. To get access to a service, a small query has to be downloaded on the Palm. The query is made using a software program from Palm. The software converts a html page to a query, and the query is downloaded to the Palm. A service, like a news service, will then be available as an icon on the palm. By selecting the icon, a form will be displayed on the screen. By filling in the form, and push a button, the request is sent to the network using a Palm protocal. The query is sent to a gateway in 3Com's data centre, which transforms the query to a html request. The reply to the request is sent bach through the gateway, and translated to the Palm format, and then displayed on the screen.

So what is the plus and minus by this model? First of all the service concept looks fine. The user can focus on the service, and not browsing, which might be difficult to implement on a wireless terminal. But at the same time there is a danger of loosing some of the flexibility that the internet gives. The process of selecting and downloading a new query is not very complicated, but anyway it is more complicated than just typing a url into a browser, or selecting a bookmark. Another issue is that the content provider has to update the structure of his content to fit for wireless devices, and then make a query application that the user can download.

So will the Web clipping work? Well, time will show.

Since anyone can develop applications for the Palm, there are companies developing different concepts. One is IBM, that has developed a system called Mobile Connect, focusing on access to corporate networks. Until there are generic solutions in the market, there will be several solutions like this.

3Com has not announced any plans to include a normal browser into the Palm, but there are independent software developers developing browsers for the Palrm. With a browser, the user can browse content on the internet. But the content from an ordinary page made for desktop computers will not automatically look nice on a Palm browser, the download times will be long, and the bill will be high. But with the bandwith increasing, and prices dropping, the browsing model will be more and more appealing. Next year GPRS will arrive in the GSM world, and in a few years there will be third generation wireless networks with even higher bandwith, being implemented world wide.

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