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Press Release Archive, 2001
Washington Area's PalmOS Users Group (DC-PUG) For Immediate Release Demos of the new Palm m500-series handhelds, talks by representatives of Palm, Inc., and AvantGo, and giveaways of free PDA-related hardware and accessories will highlight a May 14th meeting in NIH's Masur Auditorium in Bethesda, Maryland. The presentation, sponsored by the Washington Area PalmOS Users Group (DC-PUG) and the Capital PC User Group/Palm Special Interest Group (PalmOS-SIG), will highlight recent developments by two of the mobile computing industry's leading companies, as well as providing a glimpse into the future of mobile information management solutions.
Palm's Government Sales Representative Charlene Ferguson will provide an overview of Palm's handheld product line, including the recently launched m500-series, and assess the current state of the handheld market. System Engineer John Gosset will discuss technical aspects of the PalmOS platform, including Palm's new support for SD Card expansion modules, the newly released PalmOS v 4.0, e-mail and data server options, platform security, and future prospects, such as the Blue Tooth and 802.11 wireless protocols.
AvantGo District Sales Manager Brian O'Mara will speak about the company's industry-leading mobile data solutions, which allow consumers to synch more than 1000 channels of PDA-formatted content to their PDAs, and provide enterprise clients the ability to "synch, surf, and push" corporate data from company servers to mobile devices.
At the event, which is open to the general public, DC-PUG and Palm, Inc., will give away several PDA-related door prizes including two Kodak PalmPix digital camera modules, which clip onto Palm PDAs, converting them into digital cameras capable of taking 640 x 480 color snapshots. The doors open at 6:30 pm, with presentations lasting from 7 to 9 pm. For more details, visit DC-PUG's Web site (http://www.interpug.com/dcpug/meetings.html).
Palm, Inc., has been manufacturing PDAs since 1996. The company's unflagging commitment to simple, efficient, and highly usable designs quickly led to a lasting domination of the PDA market. Today, besides powering the most popular handheld computers, PalmOS can be found in cell phones and in-dash car computers.
Founded in 1997, AvantGo is the leading mobile infrastructure solutions provider, serving 18 Fortune 100 companies and synching Web-based content to more than 2.5 million individual users via its free services alone. The company recently unveiled version 4.0 of its enterprise mobile data solutions software.
The palmtop computer market has seen an explosive expansion over the past few years. According to NPO Intellect Market Tracking, manufacturers shipped over three and a half million units in 2000, a nearly fivefold increase of the number of units shipped in 1998.
This rise in popularity is easy to understand—PDAs have surpassed their originally intended purpose of digital replacements for paper day planners, and have steadily grown into robust, albeit specialized, computing platforms. At a recent DC-PUG meeting, AvantGo's Brian O'Mara summed up the current state of handheld technology, saying "We are now able to give 70 percent of the functionality of a laptop with 5 percent of the real estate." As PDAs continue to gain footholds with both individuals and businesses, most market analysts are predicting continued growth for the market.
DC-PUG was founded in August 2000 by Metro area Palm fans who met and organized through Usenet posts and e-mail. The group holds monthly meetings at various Metrorail-accessible sites around the Washington Metropolitan area. Meetings generally feature a guest speaker, product demo or tutorial, and often have door prizes of PalmOS software or accessories. DC-PUG has also become an organization to which people turn for advice, beta testing, and referrals regarding PalmOS products and services.
With more than 3000 members, the Capital PC User Group is the third largest PC-based user group in the United States. The organization supports a number of special interest groups, covering a variety of subjects ranging from beginners computing to entrepreneurship and consulting. CPCUG offers a variety of member benefits, including discounts on computer training, a monthly magazine, and optional Internet access.
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