When Psion Plc launched its first handheld computer in 1984 it boasted a massive eight kilobyte memory and a two line display. Today, users expect a minimum of four megabytes and VGA quality graphics. Dataquest analyst Mike Maguire believes that before the end of the century devices with color screens will be replacing monochrome. It will make them much more attractive for people to use for longer periods of time, says Maguire. In addition to color screens users can expect much closer synchronization with their desktop PCs as well as the ability to use them as part of a wireless LAN (local area network) or even connect to the PC remotely. The most marked improvement will be in the area of wireless communications, says Maguire. No one would buy a standard Windows CE device for web-surfing in the field because the modem cards which attach to the device are so power hungry they can drain new batteries in twenty minutes flat. Philip’s Velo 1 Windows CE compatible, although more expensive than the average handheld device, already includes a software modem as standard. Softmodems replace the two most expensive elements of a conventional modem – the digital signal processor and microcontroller – and execute the functions on the computer’s CPU (central processing unit). This is both more energy efficient and up to a tenth of the price. Ominously for conventional modem makers, virtually all major processor companies are designing softmodems for their products.
First to market
Robin Saxby, chief executive of Advanced Risc Machines, whose microprocessors are used in Newton and Psion handheld computers, is looking to new softmodem products to help him consolidate ARM’s position as one of the three leading architectures for handheld computers. The real prize that ARM, Hitachi and Silicon Graphics, whose processor is MIPS are vying for is not the handheld market alone, even if it does become as large as optimistic predictions, but the opportunity to ride on the back of the operating systems vendors efforts to port their software to a wider range of devices. Just as Microsoft helped Intel make the leap from the PC to the corporate server with Windows NT, so the makers of powerful but energy efficient RISC microprocessors hope the efforts of Microsoft, Psion and Geoworks and others will help them make the leap from handheld computers to smart-phones, pagers and in-car global positioning systems. Nokia was the first to market with a device which could be dubbed a smart-phone. The Nokia 9000 is a mobile telephone on the outside which opens up to reveal a Geoworks-based handheld computer inside. Microsoft, meanwhile, is targeting pagers and in-car global positioning systems. Other companies, including Motorola, Research in Motion, Metricom and RAM Mobile Data, are using Windows CE to create alternative systems. All this is still a far cry from Bill Gates’ vision of the wallet-PC which has driven Microsoft’s push into handheld computer operating systems. This was a multi-purpose computer the size of a small pocket calculator which people will use to carry electronic cash, keys and identification, for static information such as a diary and address book and for mobile communications including newspapers paging and telephony. When that will happen is still anyone’s guess.
