WinTel to resurface on the hand
By Ephraim Schwartz , Dan Neel , and Paul Krill
October 19, 2001 3:21 pm PT
DON'T LOOK NOW, but that almost forgotten word, "WinTel," will rise again
next month at Comdex in Las Vegas on the back of new products on display
at the tech industry showcase.
It won't be WinTel on the desktop or notebook that captures the spotlight;
it'll be WinTel on the handheld.
Vendors will preview high-performance handhelds based on the traditional
Windows/Intel combination, but with the capability to run full-blown desktop
applications.
The list includes Intel's X-scale processor running at above 450Mhz and
Microsoft's upcoming Windows CE 4.0 operating system that will allow Pocket
PC devices from the likes of Casio, Compaq, and Hewlett-Packard (HP) to
offer built-in speech recognition, high-level security, and improved wireless
functionality along with low power consumption.
And additional twist is the perceived positioning of Windows CE's competitor,
Palm OS.
Most high-tech industry executives say that the Palm OS and its licensees
have 12 months to 18 months to incorporate serious enterprise-level
capabilities such as multi-threading, multi-tasking, and security beyond simple
SSL (Secure Socket Layer), or the game is over.
"Palm is the Macintosh of the handheld world," said Raphael Auphan, vice
president of strategy and market development for Viafone, a wireless
infrastructure provider.
Despite Palm OS' claimed shortcomings, some industry experts believe devices
like Handspring's Treo is a compelling reason to stick with Palm OS. "It doesn't
matter if it doesn't have much processing power. It is a killer device," said Sal
Visca, CTO at InfoWave, a wireless infrastructure provider. In addition, Palm
is in the midst of upgrading its OS to run on the same core Arm processor as
the Pocket PC devices.
There is also the ease-of-use factor. "We run into people intimidated by the
Pocket PC. It doesn't have ease of use," said Gary Briggs, a mobility strategist
for EDS in Plano, Texas.
Nevertheless, some of the largest companies have already made up their
mind. UPS selected Windows CE over the Palm platform for 200,000 devices.
Windows CE integrated more easily with its current networks and its 5,000
Windows-based development staff, according to David Salzman, program
manager at UPS Information Services in Mahwah, N.J.
It may be premature to make predictions, but it is significant to note that not
only large corporations appear to be favoring the Windows CE platform, but
high-tech companies that sell into that market as well.
For example, Siebel Systems will release applications that enable tracking of
consumer goods and pharmaceuticals inventories on handhelds, but the
offerings will only be supported on Microsoft's Pocket PC.
"Pocket PC has multithreading and large amounts of RAM and significant
processing power, and so for applications like consumer goods sales and
pharmaceutical sales management, we think it's the right platform," Stone
said.
Russ McMeekin, CEO at ViaPhone and a former divisional president at
Honeywell, believes most large companies will stick with WinTel. "Microsoft
and Intel have taken us this far for 10 years. So for scalability and longevity
it is these brands that prevail. If I was making a $50 million decision at
Honeywell, I would go with WinTel," he said.
Meanwhile, attendees at Comdex will get their first look at Version 4.0 of
Windows CE and the X-scale processor.
Many are saying the combination may become an unstoppable dynamic duo.
Add to the mix multi-gigabyte hard drives from both IBM and Toshiba in a
handheld-friendly Compact II flash form factor, and users could load the
entire Microsoft Office applications onto a handheld.
For wireless, Version 4.0 will support wireless wakeup of the handheld, when,
for instance, an e-mail arrives. This always-on functionality is now only
available on the Research in Motion (RIM) BlackBerry devices.
The combination of the new OS and the increased processing capability of the
StrongArm 2, now called X-scale, will also allow for a higher level of security
that can use longer ciphers, according to Sal Visca, CTO at InfoWave.
Set to arrive next year, X-Scale chips will mark the beginning of a new
ARM-based processor road map for Intel that could exceed clock speeds of
1GHz, according to Intel representative Mark Miller.
Intel will not reveal the debut speed of the first X-Scale chips, but recent
core demonstrations of the chip reveled it has the ability to run at 1GHz while
consuming less than one ten-thousandth of a watt of power.
"Obviously X-Scale won't scale to 1GHz coming out of the chute, but you can
see how the convergence of voice and data [in PDAs] and color screens are
requiring a whole lot more processing power," Miller said.
InfoWorld Editor at Large Ephraim Schwartz is based in San Francisco. Dan Neel is an
InfoWorld senior writer. Paul Krill is an InfoWorld editor at large.
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