Pocket PC to Deliver New Applications and Telephony

Details of the new Pocket PC platform for handheld devices have begun to emerge. Microsoft has set a firm date for its release—no later than June of this year—and announced that it will run applications formerly available only on the much larger Handheld PCs. Furthermore, the Pocket PC platform will be the basis for future “smart phones” that combine voice and data functions. Microsoft continues to add features and applications to the Pocket PC, hoping to distinguish it Palm Computing’s devices, which have obtained a commanding market lead but are optimized for a smaller set of applications.

The Pocket PC platform, announced at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January, is the successor to Microsoft’s Palm-size PC platform. Like the Palm-size PC, the Pocket PC is a pocket-sized, keyboardless device, which provides Personal Information Management (PIM) applications such as a calendar, task list, address book, and notepad. The Pocket PC will run a major upgrade of Windows CE, version 3.0, formerly code-named Rapier. (See “Pocket PC Platform Announced” on page 16 of the Feb. 2000 Update.)