Palm Inc. introduced a wireless solution for its full line of personal digital assistants at PC Expo last week called the Mobile Internet Kit.
The kit consists of a software upgrade that adds Palm’s Web Clipping technology to the devices, allowing them to interact with the Palm.Net portal service. The devices must be wirelessly enabled via a connection to a wireless phone, which acts as a modem, or using wireless modems from Novatel.
It also includes an option to access Wireless Application Protocol content. In addition, the software kit also will upgrade Palm devices with earlier versions of the operating system to Palm OS version 3.5. Available later this year, the kit is expected to retail for $50.
“The Palm Mobile Internet Kit is a major milestone in our drive to make existing Palm handhelds wirelessly enabled by the end of this year,” said Alan Kessler, chief operating officer of platform and products at Palm. The company claims an installed base of 7 million devices.
In support of the kit, Palm also revealed 37 new content providers, including 25 new companies, that have agreed to provide Web clipping applications that will be bundled in future Palm products. They include ABCNews.com, Amazon.com, American Airlines, America Online Inc., Barnes&Noble.com Mapquest.com, Prudential, ThinAirApps, Ticketmaster, Yahoo! and USATODAY.com, among others.
Palm also announced plans to add an expansion slot to future devices. With such a slot, a Palm device could gain added functionality via different plug-in chips. Uses include wireless connectivity, Bluetooth modules, digital camera and additional storage and memory.
The expansion slot is similar to the Springboard expansion slot featured on the Visor device developed by Handspring, a company created by former Palm founders and inventors of the Palm OS technology. The new Pocket PC devices based on Microsoft Corp.’s Windows CE OS also have an expansion slot.
Beating analysts expectations, Palm also reported a fourth quarter net income of $12.4 million, or 2 cents per share, compared with a net income of $6.8 million, or one cent per share, reported a year ago. The figure was significantly influenced by the costs related to Palm’s split from former parent company 3Com Corp. Excluding these costs, net income was $16.9 million, or 3 cents a share.
The company reported net revenues of $350.2 million, up more than 100 percent from the $174.3 million figure reported last year.
The better-than-expected quarterly earnings and new product announcements sparked a rise in Palm stock, which was trading up almost $2 at press time to $28.13.
