PalmOne evangelist of convergence

PalmOne’s chief evangelist, Paul Leeper, came to Manila last week to give a keynote speech during the PalmOne and 3Com Networking and Mobile Computing Technology Showcase held at the Manila Intercontinental Hotel.

Leeper, a 15-year technology veteran, is recognized as the "voice of PalmOne," having been with Palm since the creation of the first Palm devices. His role as chief evangelist is to rally new adopters to the ever-diversifying platform of PalmOne which, upon its purchase of former rival Handspring, has created a line of consumer- and business-oriented handhelds, including a number of convergent devices that offer handheld computing and smartphone functions.

"I have a lot of passion for (PalmOne) products. For me, they changed my life by making it easier and giving me access to the information that I wanted," Leeper said. "Part of my job is education, making people understand what a Palm can do for them and (how it can) change their lives and make their lives easier."

"With these devices," he added, "I can find people’s business cards quickly. I can check my appointments in seconds. As time evolved, my PalmOne device brought me e-mail; I can now carry pictures and even music. This is true convergence."

PalmOne currently sells the Zire consumer line of personal digital assistants, the Tungsten line of business-focused handheld computers, and the Treo 600 convergent PDA-smartphone device.

Leeper’s visit focused on the launch of the Treo 600 smartphone device which is seen to be PalmOne’s first true convergent device.

The previous PalmOne, dubbed as "Palm Computing," introduced wireless-capable handhelds such as the Palm VII and the Palm i705 that used a two-way, pager-type Web-clipping technology to send and retrieve information wirelessly on a proprietary system. Both models saw limited success overseas and were not sold in Asia.

The Treo 600, on the other hand, is a full-spec, tri-band smartphone with built-in Palm operating system features, a digital camera and software that can connect it to the Internet via GPRS. Globe Telecom currently sells the Treo to customers availing themselves of its cellular plans.

Global demand for the Treo 600, however, has overwhelmed the short supply of the smartphone, pushing PalmOne to ramp up its manufacturing.

The Treo 600 is also standards-based and uses relatively common HTML, WAP, GPRS, SMS and MMS protocols seen in rival smartphones from Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Microsoft, its largest rival software-wise.

"Simple, easy technology. This is where convergence wins in bringing things together," Leeper said in his keynote speech. He illustrated that PalmOne spends a lot of time studying which devices should be integrated into handheld computers.

Convergence, according to Leeper, needs to be simple and intuitive without being burdensome. That is why PalmOne devices have managed to integrate audio, video, the Internet, office, game and connectivity applications seamlessly into one device.

When told that other companies from the handheld and cellular handset sectors have also released convergent devices, Leeper said a few of them considered small size and superior battery life in their devices. These, he said, are two of the most important selling points in portable devices.

Leeper explained that PalmOne makes its products based on how it expects people to use them. It also listens to its customers and tries to integrate the requested functionalities within reasonable limits.

"We want people to have fun, to be able to keep their memories with them, be able to share information anywhere, and access their data anywhere," Leeper said. "At the same time, we have to have a device that’s nice, (in a) small compact form factor, which they can carry wherever they go and is actually useful to them. That is what a PalmOne handheld is."

"Our team spends a lot of time thinking about what we are going to make. Product marketing is very important so we make sure that the right things go into the right products. That is why we have three product lines targeting three different markets," Leeper said, adding that there is a PalmOne handheld made to fit each particular lifestyle.