Microsoft Corp is on a roll when it comes to upsetting people at the moment and the latest victim to be hit by the software giant is 3Com Corp, as Microsoft takes the wraps off its new Palm PC. The Palm PC will be powered by version 2.0 of the Windows CE operating system and be in direct competition with 3Com’s PalmPilot. The Redmond, Washington company plans to ship the software to seven hardware original equipment manufacturers that include Casio Computer Co Ltd, Samsung Electronics America Inc and Philips Electronics North America Corp, at some point before the end of the quarter. The Palm PC will enable users to carry information that usually resides on their desktop machines on a device that will fit into the palm and can be operated by one hand. Devices containing the Windows CE-based software can share information with business and home personal computers and with other Windows CE-powered companion devices. But 3Com’s Palm Computing division is not at all happy about the new Microsoft offering, primarily because it has such a similar name and is considering legal action. Microsoft is still embroiled in a legal battle with the US Department of Justice over the bundling of Internet Explorer with Windows (CI No 3,315), and more action will if nothing else prove a nuisance. Palm Computing vice president of marketing Ed Colligan says the company has not yet decided whether it will take legal action, and believes it is too early to tell how much the new Microsoft device will impact on its own product. But he believes the Palm PC will run into problems similar to those that Windows CE experienced when it first came to light. He said: It’s too big, too slow, too hard to use and too expensive. The Palm PC is Microsoft’s third attempt to break into this field of computing, and it is making a huge song and dance about the Windows CE element. The first product in the palm computing arena that the Redmond company came up with was Windows for Pens, followed by WinPad, both of which proved to be monumental flops. It is now raving about the Palm PC, which has already run into criticism for not containing Pocket Word or Pocket Excel. The company is under the impression that Windows CE will be the winning factor in the Palm PC and is boasting it has sold half a million copies of the Windows CE operating system, but in fact, according to the Wall Street Journal only half of those units left the distributor and got into the hands of the consumer.
