PC in Your Palm

By Laura Locke

A computer for every pocket. That idea has been the core of Palm, Inc.'s strategy. Ed Colligan, president and CEO of the maker of the Treo smartphone and other wireless handheld devices, spoke with TIME's LAURA LOCKE about the future of mobile computing and why Palm joined forces with Microsoft.

TIME: Palm created the handheld computing industry. Where is it headed now?

ED COLLIGAN: From the very beginning, we felt the future of personal computing is mobile computing. We're halfway there. In the not too distant future, people will turn to [portable] devices for their computing needs, to access information and to communicate. I think we're going to lead that continued revolution. Ten years from now, I think we will have every opportunity to be like Intel, Apple, Cisco, Oracle and the great companies in Silicon Valley.

TIME: Can you give us a hint about the future capabilities of mobile computers?

E.C.: We'll be watching TV on these things. You'll be able to access your TiVo and have your own personal online capability. I believe strongly there will be more Google searches done on devices like this than any other kind of computing device. This will be the [core] computer for a lot of people around the world. But maybe we haven't done a good enough job of communicating about what our products can do now. [Colligan picks up a Treo 650.] I have a 2-GB expansion card here. I can store approximately 10 movies on this. I can also download an application called MobiTV and view television on this. So it's not as Star Treky as it sounds. It's possible today.

TIME: Palm has recently entered into deals with longtime competitors, like Microsoft. Why?

E.C.: There are a lot of companies in the world that have standardized on Microsoft technology, so when you look at the realities of the business, you say, "Is it better to try to fight or partner in this environment?" The one big thing that we wanted was to bring the Palm experience to the [Windows Mobile 5.0] platform. Microsoft worked very closely with us to enable that.

The opportunity is very large. If you look at the number of e-mail boxes used in the world today for business e-mail, it's about 700 million. Some reasonable number of those e-mail boxes will decide that they would like to have this on them.

TIME: How are you approaching the broader consumer market?

E.C.: The Treo and Treo functionality are something that a lot of people would like to have. It just may be a little too expensive. So the first thing we're trying to do is really drive the cost out of it as much as we can and try to reach a new price point.

TIME: If you had a wish list of potential partners to help target newer, younger consumers, whom would you consider?

E.C.: I'd work with Yahoo!, Google, AOL, Time Warner and Comcast. [Younger] consumers are very driven by the media functionality that will be delivered to those devices. With Apple, we worked hard to figure out how to integrate more closely into their technology. We have looked at partnering with them in other ways too, and we have a good relationship. So there are opportunities there.

TIME: Going forward, who will be your toughest competitors?

E.C.: It's hard to call in the long run. I expect Nokia, Motorola and Samsung and all the traditional handset players. It's possible some of the PC vendors will figure out how to get into this game. There are certainly Research in Motion and some other players in the marketplace today that I expect to continue to be competitors.

TIME: At what point do we become too connected?

E.C.: There's one button that's really important--it's the off button. People need to understand that this device shouldn't be a ball and chain. It should be a freeing experience. I find it to be really liberating, frankly. Our lives have become generally more complex. If you're going to have that complexity and craziness around your life, it's better to be in control of it than have it control you.