It seems the rumors of Palm's death, as Mark Twain so eloquently put it, have been greatly exaggerated. On the heels of the Quartz device unveiled at ceBIT earlier this year (dubbed by certain industry analysts as a 'Palm Killer') as well as the latest Pocket PC offerings from Microsoft which have industry insiders buzzing (again) about how the software giant and its entourage are set to take over the handheld market, Palm's days, it would seem, are numbered. Not to be outdone however, Palm has fired back and this time its weapon is not sleek design nor streamlined functionality, but the new buzzword in mobile computing - wireless.

	Soon All Palms Will Follow the Path of the Palm VII

At a recent technology conference held in New York City, Palm CEO Carl Yankowski offered a glimpse of what is on the horizon for Palm. According to Yankowski, in the future (as early as year end) all Palm devices will have wireless access to the Internet, using such technologies as internal receivers (like the Palm VII), or hardware to facilitate connections via cell phone.

As part of this strategy, Palm is also expected to clean up what has become an unwieldy product line-up, ranging from the high-end Palm VII and color IIIc to the entry-level IIIe. Reducing the number of models should reduce the substantial confusion that now clouds consumers' minds as an array of Palm OS-based handhelds, including the Handspring Visor and TRGpro, now compete for their attention.

	The Quartz: The 'Palm Killer'?

The announcement by Palm, which currently holds 70 percent of the handheld market, is an important milestone in the evolution of handheld technology and a testament to the increasing convergence of personal digital assistants and cellular phones. According to industry experts over 83 million of these hybrid devices will be in use by 2003. At such a growth rate, sales of mobile wireless devices will soon exceed PC sales, a fact indicative that we are rapidly approaching a wireless generation.

For the health care professional, this trend continues to point toward a future marked by increasing use of mobile technology to access and manage information. As prices fall for wireless-enabled devices and for wireless service (including perhaps subsidized or free hardware as pare of a wireless service contract) these mobile computers will quickly become as indispensable as pagers and cell phones.

Nonetheless, while Palm has shown it still has a few tricks up its sleeve, whether the company can continue to dominate the market it pioneered less than five years ago still remains to be seen. Like no other time in its short history, powerful opponents are looking to establish their claim to the wireless future and the tremendous rate of technological change means only the most innovative will survive.

And while some might see the current wave of announcements in the mobile and wireless space as a signal to delay their entrance into the world of handhelds, it is really the opposite choice which should prevail. Granted, the devices available today will likely be obsolete a year from now and the money spent now might seem wasted. But the reality is that technology evolves at a fantastic rate and no matter when one makes the purchase decision, obsolescence will always been on the horizon. Furthermore, only by making the leap and getting used to a mobile device will one truly know what features to look for when they upgrade to newer and more powerful devices. Besides, today's devices have already proven themselves to be tremendous timesavers, and even if they only last a year, the return on investment is still phenomenal. After all, what's your time worth?

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