May 7, 2001

Have you ever had someone ask you for a phone number as they pass you in a hallway? You pull your Palm OS device out of your pocket, press the button with a phone on it, enter one or two characters in the Graffiti area, and read the number off to your colleague. Done.

What if they ask you for directions? You've got a wireless connection, so no problem, right? Pull the device out of your pocket, go to your browser, navigate to the MapQuest icon, tap it, wait for your wireless modem to power up and find a tower. If it finds a connection, enter the address you want directions to. Wait a few seconds for the initial download. If the map it shows you is not at the right zoom level, tap one of the zoom icons, and wait a few more seconds. On second thought, forget it, the person who asked you for directions has already gotten them from somebody else.

The Zen of Palm

The original designers of the Palm OS had exactly these scenarios in mind. They knew that if anything took even a few seconds to accomplish in real life, you would throw the device in the trash. You wouldn't trash it because you are impatient, but you'd trash it because it embarrassed you. Palm OS went mainstream because people could use it without being embarrassed by the technology. Mainstream use of wireless data is a long way off because right now, it is frankly embarrassing.

Here's an excerpt from the "Palm OS Cookbook", Palm's developer guide to making good Palm OS applications: "On a PC, users don't mind waiting a few seconds while an application loads because they plan to use the application for a certain amount of time. The Palm OS paradigm, in contrast, resembles that of a watch: People want instant access to information. The user should be able to keep up with someone on the telephone when setting up appointments, looking up phone numbers, and so on."

Usable or Loseable

Handheld applications succeed through being usable, period. Mobile features that sound great will fail in the long term if they can't be used in normal social situations. The idea of wireless data access from a handheld device sounds fantastic at first - you could have your company's 50-gigabyte database at your fingertips from anywhere! And the first few queries will seem like magic - no need to plug a modem in to the wall or fire up your laptop! But at about the 500^th query, you'll sure wish that info was located on the device.

Some of the applications that are being dreamed of for wireless handheld devices are just plain odd, while others are better kept on the laptop for now. Querying a large database is one of the latter - keep the data on your laptop's hard drive, or dial in through a land line from the comfort of your cozy hotel room. If you're sitting in a car that is driving in and out of coverage areas while trying to submit a few searches to a remote database, keep the windows rolled up lest you have the urge to throw that wireless device out on the street. Email is borderline - it's ok to browse a few emails on a handheld wireless connection, but if you have to reply to 20 emails, get ready to pull out your keyboard.

Incumbent Technology: Paper

Let's say you're new to an area, and you want to get the lay of the land. Don't reach for that wireless device. Drive to your local drug store and plop down $4 for a disposable, 1200dpi, full color display that folds from 6 inches by 3 inches to 3 feet by 3 feet in an instant. Believe me, a paper map will make the others in your car much more comfortable. As you are hurtling towards a fork in the highway at 75 miles per hour, you will not make any friends if you say, "hold on, it's loading!!"

Almost all Palm OS devices now have a wireless option, and Microsoft is basing an entire advertising campaign around the wireless buzzword. We admit that we've got mostly Palm devices around Red Mercury Labs, but we're pretty sure it's not any less embarrassing to say "hold on it's loading" with an iPaq in your hand. Microsoft, our condolences to you and your marketing team.

It Will Be Fixed... Someday...

So what's it going to take to fix all of this? A better pocket web browser isn't the answer. Go back and re-read that section from the Palm OS Cookbook above, and you'll know exactly what it will take. If a company releases a wireless pocket device that can get you the information you need in under a second without embarrassing you, they'll have a winner. As for the rest of them? In the trash.

About the Author:
Scott Corley started Red Mercury in 1999 to develop small games for mobile devices. He purchased his first mobile wireless device, capable of bandwidth up to 200kHz, with saved allowance in the mid-1970's. He used it to remotely stream FM-quality audio media. The device was also capable of receiving AM signals.

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