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July 24, 2000 |
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Pocket PCs:
Alternatives To WAP
CDPD PC card allows up to 19.2 kbps on PDAs
By Jason Levitt
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urking behind all the hype for the Wireless Access Protocol--the global standard for bringing Web applications to cell phones and other handheld devices--is the sense that it's ephemeral.WAP was designed for the very low-bandwidth, small-screen, high-latency Internet connections that are offered on today's cell-phone networks. It's effective in the resource-scarce environment of a cell phone, but with cellular service providers scrambling to deploy higher-speed networks and device manufacturers creating more powerful handheld devices, WAP growth may level off in a couple of years, as higher data rates and better quality client devices make TCP/IP, HTTP and other protocols more attractive. WAP won't disappear, since there will always be a need to access Web applications in a low-overhead way.
Businesses and users will appreciate the convenience of using familiar end-to-end TCP/IP Internet connections on their wireless devices.
Compaq's iPaq H3650 Pocket PC is the first example I've seen of the level of quality that next-generation handheld devices can offer. Unveiled at the pocket PC launch in April and available in early July, the combination of the iPaq H3650 Pocket PC and a Cellular Digital Packet Data PC Card creates a formidable wireless Internet access experience using national CDPD networks in the United States. It's not a cell phone, so there are no voice services, but the Pocket PC with a CDPD PC Card gives Internet access to users in most major U.S. cities, at rates that aren't that much higher than standard voice cell-phone rates.
CDPD, a packet-switched data network available in the United States, has a maximum throughput of 19.2 Kbps. Effective throughput is more like 10 Kbps, but the user experience is acceptable and optimizations such as turning off graphic file downloads make it seem fast.
This isn't a denuded Web experience such as WAP or the Palm VII's proprietary Web Clippings technology. It's end-to-end TCP/IP, which means you can browse any site with the Windows CE 3.0 Pocket Internet Explorer (which has cookies, JScript, and Secure Sockets Layer encryption, but not Dynamic HTML or Java) and send and receive E-mail using Inbox, an E-mail client that supports both POP3 and IMAP4 standards and attachments.
Additionally, the CDPD service is provided by a standard PC Card that's also compatible with notebooks. Upgrading to faster technology is simply a matter of getting a new PC Card and drivers for Windows CE.
The H3650 has a fast CPU--the 32-bit, 206-MHz StrongArm RISC CPU. It also has a readable and reasonably large 12-bit, 240-by-320 pixel, color TFT display. Shipping with 32 Mbytes of RAM, the H3650 does an admirable job of re-creating a desktop-PC Web-browsing experience on a device barely larger than a Palm Pilot IIIc.
The cost of Internet access for this device is high, but will eventually fall. Compaq's Pocket PC retails for $499. The optional PC Card jacket, which wraps around the Pocket PC and contains an extra battery, is $149. A CDPD PC Card, such as the AirCard 300 from Sierra Wireless Inc., is priced at $300, and it includes a device driver for the Pocket PC's Windows CE 3.0 operating system. The price of the total hardware package comes to about $900.
CDPD service can be obtained from cellular service providers such as GTE and AT&T at around $55 per month, but with some roaming charges, and coverage isn't nearly as good as voice-service coverage.
Continual Internet access also takes a toll on resources. On the PocketPC it reduces the battery life to between two and five hours, as opposed to an average of 12 hours for the standalone PocketPC's lithium-polymer battery.
For a while, Palm Pilots had a similar Internet access solution using CDPD modems such as the Minstrel III and Minstrel V from Novatel Wireless and Web browsing software such as Proxiweb from Pumatech Inc. and Omniweb from Omnisky Inc. They've also had the advantage of better flat-rate CDPD access charges--typically $40 a month with no extra roaming charges.
While the Palm excels as a personal organizer and has exceptional cross-platform support, trying to cram an Internet-browsing experience onto a Palm Pilot isn't very satisfying. The question is whether anyone wants PC-level experience on a handheld, and I think the answer is yes, provided the experience is accurate and rich enough.
Ironically, despite Palm's leading role as a slim personal digital assistant, the company has yet to release any WAP technology, even though it has licensed the Phone.com browser used on most WAP phones and has expressed intention to roll out WAP support later this year. Compaq also doesn't offer a WAP solution for the H3650 although it does offer one for its Aero 2100 model that works by connecting through a GSM cell phone.
The H3650 sets the standard for Internet access on a PDA, but I've no doubt that new Palm Pilots and cell phone-PDA combinations expected from Ericsson, Nokia, and other vendors next year will be competitive, if not significantly better performers.
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