Palm Pilot gets new competitor, the

The market for handheld computing devices welcomed a
potentially powerful new contender as
the heavily funded Handspring Silicon Valley start-up launched its
long-awaited "Visor" system that offers users a cheaper and more
expandable hand-held computer than the market-leading Palm Pilot from
3Com.

The Visor was designed by the same duo of entrepreneurial engineers,
Donna Dubinsky and Jeff Hawkins who developed the Palm Pilot, which is
already used by some 4 million people worldwide. Dubinsky and Hawkins left
Palm in 1998 to form Handspring. The Visor lets users plug a variety of
pieces of hardware into a basic unit via a so-called
"springboard" that connects hardware to the Visor.

Among the add-ons are adaptors for playing music, making phone calls,
taking pictures and playing computer games. One add-on to the Visor is a
cartridge that looks like the top of a cellular phone, which combines the
two devices by automatically dialing numbers in a user's phone book. The
Visor has a built-in microphone and the add-on would have an ear piece. A
variety of software applications is
also available and are loaded into the system from credit-card-size memory
cards.

The Visor is about 1.6 cm thick and measures 3-inch by 5-inch. The LCD
screen takes up most of the surface. It has 2 MB of memory -- the same as
the base Palm Pilot ­ and can store about 6,000 addresses, five years of
appointments, 1,500 to-do items, 1,500 memos and 200 e-mail messages. The
Deluxe version has 8 MB of memory. Unlike the Palm Pilot, which has been
popular in the business community, the Handspring is being marketed at the
consumer market. Initially the machine will only be available from
Handspring’s Web site. Next year, the device will be distributed through
traditional retail channels. Well aware of the Visor announcement, 3Com
made its surprise announcement of spinning off the Palm unit less than 24
hours before the Visor launch, taking some attention away from the launch
of the new competitor.

While they will compete, there are strong ties between Handspring and
the Palm unit beyond their common founders. For one, Handspring is using
the Palm operating system and is one of Palm’s "strategic partner.
Palm officials said they welcome the entry of the Visor, which will likely
broaden the overall market of handheld devices, a development from which
Palm also stands to benefit.