FW: Microsoft Article on Pocket PC

["Gregg Vanderheiden" <gv@trace.wisc.edu>]

At the CEBIT Show last week, Microsoft took the wraps off its rival to
3Com's Palm series, the Pocket PC, which ran the first Microsoft browser
built for Windows CE Pocket Internet Explorer.
"It's a little bulky at the moment, but the final version will be as thin as
the Cassiopeia," said Georg Wolf, director of marketing for the
communications services division of Siemens, which along with Casio Computer
built the prototype that Microsoft showed off.
The Casio PC will have e-mail capabilities, mobile Internet access, and GSM
(Global System for Mobile communications) telephone capabilities through a
standard headset, said Greg Levin, director of marketing at Microsoft
Europe.
Along with the capability of connecting to the Internet over a conventional
or wireless modem, the company said that Pocket PC will be able to connect
over LANs, PANs (personal area networks), and WANs.
Microsoft officials said the first Pocket PC products will ship during the
first half of this year.  Pocket PCs were first announced by chairman Bill
Gates at the Consumer Electronics show in January.
Hardware manufacturers on board include Casio, Compaq, Hewlett-Packard,
Siemens, and Symbol Technologies.
Although it is an improvement on the current palm-size PC platform, it
remains to be seen if Microsoft can gain share on the market-leading Palm
OS.  Indeed, the Pocket PC could be Microsoft's last stand in the palm-sized
device segment, said Siana Hwang, program manager for mobile research at
International Data Corp., in Framingham, Mass.
"If this [mobile device] doesn't work for Microsoft this time, then I think
that's it for Microsoft," Hwang said.
Microsoft Corp., in Redmond, Wash., is at www.microsoft.com