e.Digital Corporation (fka EDIG)

[mike.w]

IBM Pushes for Wireless Access in All Its
Products
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010521/tc/tech_ibm_dc_1.html
NEW YORK (Reuters) - International Business Machines Corp.
(NYSE:IBM - news) on Monday announced a push to turn its entire
product line -- everything from notebooks to mainframe computers --
into wireless devices.

The move followed Chairman Chief Executive Louis Gerstner's
prediction in a speech to analysts two weeks ago, that within a couple of years something like two
billion wireless Internet access devices would be in use.

``The potential explosion of people and devices connecting to the network is driving the need for
customers to build infrastructures that are massively scalable, more reliable and that possess more
intelligence than they do today,'' Michel Mayer, general manager of IBM's pervasive computing
division, said in a statement.

The Armonk, New York-based company said it would deliver the industry's first all-wireless line of
products and services, including notebook computers. IBM said it would even build wireless access
into its powerful business computers known as servers -- allowing system administrators to manage the
computers via Internet enabled cell phones or personal digital assistants.

IBM said it is also helping software vendors and other business partners to bring new wireless software
programs to market, and that IBM would sell services to companies to get wireless networks up and
running quickly.

Additionally, IBM and Mitsubishi Electric Corp. (6503.T) said they would work together to develop
low power chip for cell phones that can access the Internet and handle other functions such as
messaging. IBM will make the components using its own silicon germanium chip technology, which
Mitsubishi will build into its cell phone products.