|
|
| Tablets, pirates and promises made |
March 5, 2002 |
By Peter Wolchak
E-business industry watchers have had a lot to look at lately. Microsoft has promised to beef up your security, pirates are taking money out of your pocket, and industry titans are clashing over the handheld device you’ll carry next year. A lot of interesting stuff. Let’s jump in.
Hand-to-hand combat: Notebook and desktop PCs are a lacklustre subject these days. The only exception is Apple’s funky new iMac—which appears to be the lovechild of a ’50s blender and a spaceship—but otherwise the look and feel of personal computers has become standard fare. The same cannot be said for the handheld and portable market, and battles are brewing.
The most intriguing is Compaq/Microsoft vs. IBM. At issue are tablet PCs, carry-along computers that use a stylus as their main input. IBM says there is no mass market for these and Compaq/Microsoft say there is—
you can read all about it on page 28.
Tablet PCs were introduced 10 years ago but they never became popular. What’s new, according to Compaq, is better battery life and a drop to about three pounds in weight, plus a new version of Microsoft’s Windows XP.Will this be enough to send Compaq tablets flying off the shelves? Possibly, but Compaq gets kudos in any case simply for being innovative.
On another front, Research in Motion (RIM) of Waterloo, Ont., is fighting it out with Palm for the lucrative corporate handheld market. Palm just replaced the Palm VII with the slimmer i705 wireless Web access device. The vendor hopes this unit will expand its
stature among corporate buyers.
But rival RIM is a company on the move. It recently inked marketing deals with Rogers Wireless and AT&T
Wireless Services, landed a similar agreement with Nextel Communications aimed at the radio dispatch market, and extended a contract with European wireless consortium mm02 that will see roaming services expanded on the continent.
RIM’s stock is still down but the company is working hard to correct that.
Watch the Woz: At age 29 Steve Wozniak designed the first Apple computer and revolutionized modern life.
Woz, as he’s known, just launched a new company called Wheels of Zeus—or wOz, get it?—with US$6 million in venture capital. He too is aiming at the handheld market, promising a new wireless product that will appeal to
consumers and corporations.
Keep your eye on Woz. The smart money says he’ll score again.
Of pirates and profits: A recent study from the Canadian Alliance Against Software Theft throws some startling
light on software piracy. In 2000, software piracy cost Canada $457 million in lost retail sales of business software applications, $1.9 billion in wage and salary loss and
more than 32,000 jobs, the group found. Software piracy— which includes resellers loading PCs with unlicensed
applications, counterfeiters with large copying factories and buddies who “lend” each other CDs—has a huge economic impact if these numbers are even close to accurate.
Just think of the sales tax revenue that isn’t funding your hospitals and roads, or the jobs that aren’t pumping
income tax into schools and government programs.
It kind of makes you wonder if your own office software is completely legit, doesn’t it?
Locking the barn door: With January came the welcome news that Microsoft is focusing its considerable corporate
resources on software security. “When we face a choice between adding features and resolving security
issues, we need to choose security,” chairman William Gates wrote in a memo to employees. “Our products should emphasize security right out of the box.”
Finally. Microsoft makes great products when the criteria are price and functionality but its track record on security and stability is far from impressive. Until Gates’s memo, the company seemed to restrict itself to an afterthe-fact approach to security—releasing patches for holes and warnings about viruses. With this announcement it seems the vendor is looking to secure the barn door before the horse is running wild. That will be good news to any company that has lost hours of productivity to a virus or discovered that a hacker had roamed at will through the corporate computers.
And to the critics who dismiss this move as a mere marketing ploy, we say, “We believe in you, Bill. But you’d better not let us down.”
|
|
|
| Top 300 Issue |
 
|
| Gadget of the Week (Canadian) |
|
Nav, with 3D maps
Navigon 7100
All GPS devices perform the same basic functions: supplying turn-by-turn directions and highlighting area restaurants, hotels, etc. So selecting your device comes down to deciding which extra features matter to you.
more>>
|
| Gadget of the Week (Japanese) |
Sounds of Japan
Why record just the visual when you can capture the sounds as well.
more>> |
| Backblog RSS feed |
Click to subscribe  |
|
sponsored by 
