Microsoft Corp’s Pegasus – the stripped-down version of Windows95 for Personal Digital Assistants – won’t ship with Casio Computer Co’s PDA until first quarter 1997, missing Christmas buying boom- time, according to PC Week. The target date from Redmond earlier this year was last quarter 1996. Like the early hopes for its competitor, the so-called Network Computer, Microsoft has said it wants to keep the PDA under $500. Pegasus will run miniature versions of Word and Excel stored in 5.5Mb of ROM; the Word includes 75 functions and limited font support. It will also include an email client, personal information manager and a port for a separate screen and another for Internet access. Microsoft is now very much aboard the Internet-with-everything bandwagon, and handhelds based on Pegasus are expected to be designed to give mobile professionals wireless connections to the Internet and enable them to download applications and content via narrowband Personal Communications Services or two-way paging networks. Microsoft has reportedly been talking with Hewlett- Packard, Toshiba and NEC about building Pegasus-based PDAs as well. The company is also said to be considering a scaled-down PowerPC in ROM to run on handheld or notebook computers.
