PALM PILOTS

In the last few years with the advent of e-commerce and banking online has driven the transformation of the personal organiser . Three years ago personal organisers were reasonably efficient but limited in their functions.

They were basically a digital filofax with absolutely no link to the outside world. Now we have palm pilot computing where, depending on how much money you want to pay, one can have email and internet browsing facilities along with a paging system all linked into the small, versatile, pocket-sized palm pilot. The target market that would be most likely to use palm pilots are those that are constantly moving and travelling, between car and airplane, who don't have time to sit behind a PC to look at recent developments in their business world. By having a modem installed in their palm pilot, they can get regular updates from news services, stock exchange news, sports news, check their account and receive emails from clients and their secretary to ensure that they know of all developments at all stages.

With so many different models on the market, it is vital that clients shop around and get the palm pilot that best suits their needs. Do they need it for surfing the web, or reading realms of data or do they need to key in data themselves or do they use it primarily as a paging type of service for receiving short messages??

Therefore there are a number of key characteristics to look for when buying a palm pilot to best suit your needs.

Key characteristics when choosing a palm pilot

· The client must be able to efficiently store, organise and update all the data which is why the amount of RAM on the pilot is important if the person needs a large database for clients addresses, emails appointment lists and files.

· Price -How much are our banking clients willing to pay ?

· It must be user friendly, easy to navigate your way around even if you have big awkward fingers!

· Battery life must be reasonably long lasting .

· The model you purchase must be compatible for future possible applications which you may need to install in your computer to rejuvenate it. Perhaps to install a paging device?

· Size.

· Weight.

· The operating system used. Most palm pilots operate either Windows CE or Palm OS 3.1

· A good quality screen display.

Taking all these characteristics into consideration I have complied a list of the top 5 palm pilots that are presently on the market which would best suit our clients.

NO.5

3 Com Palm V11-$455 This unit has an enhanced display which allows you to read a lot of data all at once instead of having to scroll down. The software enables you access to Amazon.com, ESPN, Yahoo and ABC News. The main problems with this device is that it is larger and heavier than any of its competitors. Battery life is only a couple of weeks.

NO.4

Motorola PageWriter 2000-$399 This features a tiny keyboard, in size it is only 3.7 high, 2.85 wide and 1.2 inches deep, it can fit onto your belt and is excellent for short pager messages. There are wireless services such as Stock news, sports and latest news. The main drawbacks are that it is hard to input data or to surf because of its small size. It is not suitable for reading lengthy emails and you would need patience typing. The battery life is only a mere week.

NO.3

3 Com Palm Pilot Professional This is the crème de la crème for top business people. It let you read, delete, compose and organise your messages. The battery life is an excellent 8-12 weeks. You can store up to 4000 addresses,2400 appointments, 750 email messages and 750 and for an extra $169 you can install a pager. The down side is that it is extremely expensive - $370 + $129 for the modem +$169 for optional pager. You also have to learn how to type which takes about 30 minutes.

NO.2

Neopoint 1000-$400. This is the jack of all trades but master of none type of palm pilot. It is essentially a cell phone with wireless web access to Yahoo and Amazon.com and MapQuest along with email and is also a personal organiser. There is a large display which means less scrolling. You can synchronise information between the PC and the Phone. The downside is that like most phones you have two and a halt hour talktime with 40 hours on standby. It is very hard to input data and is not the best personal organiser.

NO.1

3 Com V - $500 Extremely small . 4.5 inches high and 3.1 inches wide and just 0.5 inches deep weighing a mere 4 ounces. This is a trendy looking pilot with a stylish aluminium finish with an enhanced display screen. Excellent battery life, it takes just a few minutes a day to keep it fully charged. It can synchronise information between the pilot and your PC and the Operating System can be updated. The only drawback is that the RAM has 2MB and the price is a little steep at $500 with a modem.

Latest Developments

Last September, 1999 a Californian software company called Confinity launched PayPal, an application that will allow individuals to "beam" sums of money between hand held devices such as mobile phones, Palm Pilots and pagers. The application is simple to use. Users go to the PayPal site to register where they also leave a credit card number. After downloading the small application users choose a PIN. Sending a payment involves keying in the amount and pointing the device at another device; the transfer is made via the infrared port. The device figures out who the recipient and sender are; the next time the sender logs on to PayPal's site the payment is processed. Quite simply the money is charged to the sender's PayPal account and credited to the recipient's account. If the recipient lacks the PayPal application, the sender can beam that over aswell which will in effect help to spread the news of this invention. Using this technology anyone can request money over the Internet or you can send a group bill to friends over the Internet. The money involved in the transactions will be handled by Merrill Lynch and the interest earned will go to Confinity. The company is being backed by industry leaders Nokia, idealab, Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank. With this technology about to take of in Ireland, it is fair to say that Palm Pilots will be the very popular in the next 5 years. According to leading computer research firm International Data Corp. (Framingham, Mass.) estimates that annual sales of handheld computers will grow from 3,058,000 units in 1997 to 13,080,000 units by the year 2001.