3Com, the once dominant networking software company, is now making big bets in the consumer electronics space, and looking toward Europe as its next frontier.
A 3Com executive said this week that the company is working with Ericsson - the Swedish cell phone/wireless communications powerhouse - and looking at the prospects for developing a competitor to Finland's Nokia, whose Communicator 9000 combines a mobile phone with fax, email and Internet connections.
The success of its PalmPilot organizer in the US has prompted 3Com to start developing this more comprehensive handheld device, and also look abroad for new markets. Given its existing relationship with Germany's Siemens AG, Europe is the natural fit.
"We will continue to grow that relationship (with Siemens). That will also help us to get into PTTs (telephone companies) where Siemens is a very strong presence," said Janice Roberts, 3Com's senior vice-president of marketing and business development.
"We are working on a whole new concept of converged networking. This is basically bringing together voice, video, and data communications over one single network," said Roberts, adding that 3Com will also be looking at potential investment and takeover possibilities to build its presence in Europe.
3Com's PalmPilot has captured about 66 percent of the US handheld computer/PIM market, but lags at only 28 percent in the same European market.
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BeOS for Intel Ships
Calling it a "specialty" operating system meant to run alongside Windows, Be began shipping the first release of its operating system for the Intel platform. "Just as Linux is the specialty OS for the Internet, the BeOS is a specialty OS for digital video and audio," said Be CEO Jean-Louis Gassée in a statement. "[It's] designed to run alongside general purpose OSes like Windows 95 and the Mac OS."
Be has been shipping a version of the software for PowerPC-based computers since last July.
Aiming its OS at the developer market, the product leverages PC technologies like Intel's MMX, a Be representative said. When they install the software, users can automatically create a section on their hard disk that will boot the operating system separately from their installed Windows operating system. Features of the latest version of the OS include extended Internet support, additional scripting, improved window management, and increased video resolutions, the company said.
Reuters contributed to this report.
