Andrew Seybold's Outlook Lauds Microsoft- QUALCOMM's WirelessKnowledge, Names Outlook Award Winners.

BOULDER CREEK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 22, 1998--While there is demand for wireless connectivity to corporate information, the entire process has been too complex and time-consuming for most IT managers to deal with, write editors Andrew M. Seybold and Barney L. Dewey in the year-end issue of Andrew Seybold's Outlook, the authoritative newsletter serving the mobile-computing and wireless- data-communications industries.

But with the announcement of WirelessKnowledge LLC, a joint venture of QUALCOMM Inc. and Microsoft Corp., the obstacles may disappear, leading to large-scale use of wireless data devices by mobile professionals, the editors believe.

"While wireless data has been a success in the vertical marketplace, wireless data for the business professional has failed ... (for) a lack of complete solutions," the article states. Some vendors have achieved partial solutions, the article notes, but "WirelessKnowledge is the first service to offer a complete solution that allows access to the information that is of the greatest importance to the mobile professional."

The Outlook concludes the the new company can indeed bring all of the necessary elements together securely -- networks, devices and data, even behind corporate firewalls -- through a single connection.

Through relationships with companies such as BellSouth, Bell Atlantic Mobile, AT&T, US West and Go America, WirelessKnowledge will support a variety of wireless devices. Microsoft OS-based computers, digital phones with HDML, one-way pagers, two-way pagers, Web-access terminals and smart phones, adding others as they emerge.

"The connections between the carriers and WirelessKnowledge's operations center are dedicated and secure circuits," write Seybold and Dewey. "A connection between the center and the corporate LAN or WAN provides access to any and all of the networks supported by the service, including carriers that provide voice and data services, data-only services, and paging and short-messaging services."

An article by contributing editor Dewey examines 3Com's new Palm VII and evaluates its chances as a consumer product, its current positioning, and as a business product, which Dewey feels is a better slot.

"I believe that the Palm VII will be a failure (as a consumer product)," he predicts. "I doubt that many (consumers) will buy it for the likely price of $700 to $800 -- about twice the price of a Palm III. However, as a new wireless information platform to develop useful query-response solutions, I believe that it will be a big success."

Contributor James T. Norman reports on microphone technology that he discovered at Comdex, Andrea Electronics' Digital Super Directional Array (DSDA) devices. Scheduled for early-1999 shipment in desktop and automobile versions, the units incorporate four microphones within a case, all connected to a digital signal processor that analyzes signals from each and reduces them to a single signal that is without ambient noise.

Contributing editor Victor Wortman's mobile-implementation article focuses on the experience of a high-powered management consulting boutique in Hunt Valley, Md., with Proxim's Symphony small- office/home-office (SOHO) wireless LAN solution.

According to PDS Research Managing Director Joseph Krysztoforski, the peer-to-peer network didn't cost much, was a breeze to install since it required no cabling for access points, and quickly became indispensable. At home, using separate computers, Krysztoforski, his financial-consultant wife and his student son all share printer and Internet resources through Symphony.

Seybold typically names the year's Outlook Award winners in the year-end issue. This year's standouts: Bluetooth, the short-range radio connectivity initiative; the aforementioned WirelessKnowledge; HPC Professional computers (the Windows CE "Jupiter" project); the Rex Professional "wireless appliance" from Starfish; the RIM Inter@ctive Pager 950; and the 3Com Palm VII, for its excellent hardware integration.

Andrew Seybold's Outlook is a Monthly Perspective of Issues Affecting the Mobile Computing and Communications Industries. For a free copy or for information about The Outlook, Wireless Data University and allied activities, contact Ruth Johnson at Andrew Seybold's Outlook, P.O. Box 2460, Boulder Creek, Calif. 95006-2460; telephone [phone]; fax [phone]; e-mail [e-mail]; or visit www.outlook.com.