Palm Makes Wireless LANs Easier with New Tools

Customers Purchasing Xircom Wireless LAN Module for Palm Handhelds Get Wireless LAN CD with New Tools for 802.11b Nov. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- With the wireless LAN market expected to grow to $4 billion by 2003, Palm, Inc. (Nasdaq: PALM) is teaming with industry leaders Xircom, an Intel Corporation company; Corsoft; vVault; and Certicom (Nasdaq: CERT; Toronto: CIC) to make connection from Palm(TM) handheld computers to wireless Local Area Networks (LANs) easier for customers to set up, providing remote access to important data and increasing productivity. Institutions, from corporations to universities, are spending millions of dollars on wireless LANs to make it easier for their users to stay in touch while on the go. Cahners In-Stat Group predicts revenue in this market will grow more than 200 percent in two years, from $1.2 billion in 2000 to $4 billion by 2003.

When customers buy a Xircom Wireless LAN module online at The Palm Store ( http://store.palm.com ), they will receive a free wireless LAN CD with software and free trials, including a step-by-step tutorial, valued at more than $100. The combination of a Palm handheld, a Xircom module, software applications and services provided in this solution gives mobile professionals and students the tools they need to access email, the Internet and documents away from their desks.

"Wireless is changing the way our customers use their handhelds," said Kevin Hell, senior vice president of Product Management, Solutions Group, at Palm, Inc. "Making wireless LANs more easily accessible to Palm handheld users is an important part of our ongoing strategy to make sure Palm has solutions available for our users across multiple wireless network standards."

In addition to receiving the free CD, customers who purchase a Palm m125, m500 or m505 handheld and Xircom's Wireless LAN module will save as much as $99 over the cost of purchasing separately. The Xircom module attaches to the handheld via the Palm Universal Connector to provide fast, consistent, wireless access to the Internet (where available), email and network resources using IEEE 802.11b. 802.11b transmits data up to 1,000 feet from a network and is more than 100 times faster than a dial-up modem, making it an ideal technology for linking computers to one another and to the Internet in a wireless LAN.

The CD includes an email client, software for wirelessly accessing desktop files, a Virtual Private Network (VPN) client and a web browser (all Windows- only):

Corsoft's Email Client -- Customers no longer need to purchase additional software to access their email accounts. The email client is compatible with Microsoft Outlook 97/98/2000/XP. Users decide how often to download email to their Palm handhelds. They can set the system to check for new email as often as every 5 minutes. Because customers determine how frequently to check for email, they can increase modem battery life from hours to days. Also, data is protected with 192-bit AES encryption for added security.

vVault's Direct Desktop Access -- vVault software lets customers who subscribe to the vVault service access any file saved on their desktop computers or corporate networks in real time from their handheld computers, including Excel spreadsheets, Word documents, PowerPoint presentations and PDF files. Subscribers can view documents, and email or fax them from their wireless handheld computers. vVault is offering a 60-day free trial of the service, which costs $99 per year.

Certicom's VPN Security -- Certicom's movianVPN(TM) ensures the highest standard of security when connecting from outside a corporate network. movianVPN is the industry's first IPSec wireless VPN client for handheld devices that can communicate with leading VPN gateways from companies including Check Point Software, Cisco, Hewlett-Packard Company, Lucent, Nortel Networks and Symantec. Certicom is offering a 30-day free trial of the service, which costs $29.99 per year.

DPWeb Browser -- DPWeb's browser formats web pages for handheld computers so users can easily and more efficiently navigate the web.

U.S. Pricing and Availability
The bonus CD is available in the United States with the purchase of the Xircom Wireless LAN module, or a Xircom module and Palm handheld bundle, from The Palm Store at http://www.palm.com/wlan . The Xircom module and Palm m505 bundle is available for $599 (estimated U.S. street price); Xircom module and Palm m500 bundle for $549; and Xircom module and Palm m125 bundle for $499.

About Palm, Inc.
Palm, Inc. is a pioneer in the field of mobile and wireless Internet solutions and a leading provider of handheld computers, according to IDC (December 2000). Based on the Palm OS(R) platform, Palm's handheld solutions allow people to carry and access their most critical information wherever they go. Palm(TM) handhelds address the needs of individuals, enterprises and educational institutions through thousands of application solutions.

The Palm OS platform is also the foundation for products from Palm's licensees and strategic partners, such as Acer, Franklin Covey, HandEra (formerly TRG), Handspring, IBM, Kyocera, Samsung, Sony and Symbol Technologies. Platform licensees also include AlphaSmart, Garmin and Nokia. The Palm Economy is a growing global community of industry-leading licensees, world-class OEM customers, and approximately 175,000 innovative developers and solution providers that have registered to develop solutions based on the Palm OS platform. Palm went public on March 2, 2000. Its stock is traded on the Nasdaq national market under the symbol PALM. More information is available at http://www.palm.com .

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SOURCE Palm, Inc.