The Palm VII personal digital assistant, announced this month by 3Com Corp. and Palm Computing Inc., continues to generate news and speculation, even though the product is not expected to be in consumers’ hands until late next year.
Convergys Corp. told RCR it has been selected as 3Com’s outsourced provider of all billing and customer-care activities for the device. The Palm VII features an out-of-the-box activation feature that allows buyers to connect to the Internet via BellSouth Wireless Data’s packet data network and set up an account from the device itself, rather than a customer call center activating a customer account.
Also, Convergys said all customer support calls for the Palm VII will go to Convergys call centers.
Monthly access fees for data transmission vary from $10 a month for 50 kilobytes to $25 for 150 kilobytes. Convergys said it will handle all the billing associated with new customer activation as well as monthly usage fees.
When the Palm VII originally was announced, Portal Software Inc. was named the customer management and billing software provider. According to Brian Henry, Convergys chief operating officer, Convergys will use Portal’s Infranet billing system software in its billing data centers.
While Convergys downplayed the challenges inherent with the over-the-air authentication and activation feature, it said the process required some proprietary software, but would not discuss the details.
Analysts remain curious as to how the billing for the Palm VII data transfer will work. The device is scheduled for network trials in the second quarter with commercial availability planned for later in the year.
Analysts also have voiced skepticism over the device’s much-touted “Web clipping” feature. 3Com said Web clipping will allow Palm VII users to access particular information from a given Web site, rather than the full content access by traditional browsers.
However, the Web clipping feature requires Internet content providers to rewrite their sites to allow Palm VII users access to it. The model is much like that of the Wireless Application Protocol. Both require content providers to re-author portions of their sites to specifications dictated by either WAP or Palm so their respective devices may read thinner content.
Analysts at Hershel Shosteck Associates Ltd. have never endorsed this model because of this rewriting necessity.
“Because of this requirement, in addition to the lack of a proven model for compensating content providers, we have argued since June that the WAP concept is fatally flawed,” read a recent Shosteck report.
In 3Com’s favor is the fact that the Palm series of handheld devices are already hugely popular, which could entice more content providers to rewrite sites to attract these users. Also, personal digital assistant users have different needs than mobile phone users.
“Unlike proposed WAP-based smart phones, the PalmPilot has a display with more pixels, a proven form factor, and a built-in suite of useful applications. It has a tremendous base of loyal users and software developers. It is inherently useful even when out of range of a wireless network. And unlike most smart phones, Palm devices are programmable,” read the Shosteck report.
However, by the time the Palm VII is available next year, analysts expect it to face tough competition from Windows CE and H/PC devices, which according to Microsoft Corp. will be able to access the full Internet without the need for content providers to rewrite anything.
“Considering these competitive factors, the future for Palm’s proprietary Web clipping service appears dim,” Shosteck said.
