Web Clipping Over Pager Networks
In
late 1998, Palm came out with the Palm VII device containing a small
radio unit that accessed content servers operated by Palm via the
BellSouth Data Network. Because of the high cost wireless transmission,
Palm decided to provide only clipped content and launched Palm.net
service that supported small software apps known as PQAs (Palm Query
Applications) that acted as an interface to the Internet. PQAs were
small programs usually 3K in size that a user could load on the Palm
VII devices. The Palm VII shipped with a slew of PQAs installed, which
included software from ABC News, MapQuest, USA Today, Ticketmaster, The
Weather Channel, and The Wall Street Journal. In addition,
users could download any of the other 400 applications provided by the
Palm.Net services, allowing them to track stocks, schedule or
reschedule flights, track UPS packages, find restaurants and hotels,
find phone numbers, get directions, find ATMs, or look up words in the
dictionary. Furthermore, Palm.Net encouraged developers to develop new
applications, supporting developer programs.
Palm was very smart to use the pager network provided
by the BellSouth Data Network, because it was widely available in major
cities. However, the page networks offered very small bandwidth, at
very expensive prices. The original Palm.Net services were offered at
$9.99 for the 50 K of data per month or $24.99 for a roomier 150 K per
month and, depending on the amount of data queries made, for many users
the bills went up into the hundreds of dollars in just one week of
normal use.
In addition, the early device design was also
clumsy and inefficient. The unit required AAA batteries, which normally
lasted a week at most and added additional maintenance cost to the
device. Preloaded PQAs provided only generic services, and to download
additional PQAs, Palm VII users had to establish very expensive data
connection to the Palm.Net servers. Further, the 2 MB available memory
on the device did not provide much room for the PQAs, and users often
found themselves short of memory. Mainly, the price of the device was
set at a very high $599. Yet, Palm still got a lot of applause for
launching the Palm.Net services and paving the road of the early mobile
Internet services.
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