I think they’re very brave, says Fereydun Khanide, president of Munich-based Penplan Consulting, of tiny French start-up Pilgrim Technology SA’s attempt to challenge computing giants like Fujitsu Ltd, Toshiba Corp and NCR Corp in the market for hand-held computers. Given the number of companies producing portable computers, Khanide said he has been surprised at the amount of press attention that has been lavished on the tiny company in the Paris suburbs. The reason certainly lies in the rarity of a French businessman, financed by a Taiwanese electronics giant, targeting a product at the global market. Penplan Consulting may analyse the Pilgrim machines, but Pilgrim’s director of marketing Jean-Francois Porcherot says the company does not want them to be pigeonholed as pen-based computers.

Virtual keyboard

It’s not a pen-based system. We offer Pen for Windows if they want it, but that’s not the aim. It is, rather, to put all personal computer applications on a true portable with touch technology and an AT keyboard that appears on the screen on demand, he explained. In fact, says Porcherot, inputting data into the Pilgrim by pen can be problematic, since the technology is far from being perfected. PenWindows, he says, can be made to work pretty well if you concentrate on what you’re doing. But just to put it into the hands of some guy jotting down notes on the street, it’s not very useful. He notes that Microsoft Corp itself seems to recognise the software’s shortcomings in that it provides a guide for how to use it, which explains, among other things, how to formulate a letter so it will be appropriately read by the system. The 3.3 lbs Pilgrim machines feature a dual-processor architecture, where an Intel Corp 80C196 handles input-output and either a Cyrix Corp Cx486 or an Oak 386 is dedicated to the user interface. The dedicated chip provides, among other things, a virtual AT keyboard that appears on the screen whenever needed and enables data to be input by touching the keys with any pointed object. The chip also provides up to three hours of voice recording capability. The Pilgrim 386 features two PCMCIA 2.0 slots, one being of Type-II and the second being Type-III and replaceable by a 60Mb removable hard disk. MS-DOS 5.0 comes in ROM, with the optional PenWindows. Having the virtual keyboard independent of input-output processes is, says Khanide, an important advantage over its competitors. Its software keyboard is interesting; with the independent processor, you can move between the pen environment and normal [MS-DOS] environment without any cables or hardware keyboard. The hardware keyboard is in the machine, if you like, he says. To restart the pen environment from the MS-DOS environment on other pen-based systems, he says, requires a reboot and attaching a hardware keyboard, which is not particularly practical for what is purported to be a portable computer. Porcherot adds that Pilgrim provides development tools to adapt the machine to any keyboard desired. Pilgrim’s touch-screen surface technology came under criticism by Penplan in its report on the company, however.

By Marsha Johnston

The report notes that the VGA-resolution transmissive LCD is complemented by a touch-screen surface with a maximum sampling rate of 200 samples per second. The low-priced touch-based user interface design is as yet not selective enough to avoid the usual problems of conflicting signals. Touching the screen with one’s palm while writing can provoke the uncontrolled drawing of lines all around the screen. Pilgrim is said to be working on this problem. Says Khanide, It’s quite a clever design. From a technological point of view it is, maybe not superior, but adequate to the others. If you compare Pilgrim to the first generation of pen systems, like the NCR 3125, it’s adequate, but the new generation of Fujitsu (325 Point) and Toshiba (DynaPad T100x) are a bit lighter and smaller. While the Pilgrim weighs 3.3 lbs or 1,800 grams, the Fujitsu 325 Point and the DynaPad T100X weigh 1,500 and 1,400 grams, respectively.

For an additional cost of between $500 to $675, Pilgrim’s computers can be equipped with an add-on board for the machine and a module that can be attached to either a target personal computer or a peripheral device to send data via infra-red beams to a COM2 serial port, says Porcherot. For use on a site, the card enables you to communicate with peripherals or with a personal computer at a distance of between 40 to 50 feet, without any cables, making it truly portable! he said. Pilgrim’s laser technology appears superior to its competitors, as well, says Khanide. There are other machines with the infra-red option, but they operate only at a very limited distance. The Fujitsu 325 Point, for example, operates at only up to two feet. We haven’t tested Pilgrim’s infra-red feature, but the technology is mature, so there’s no reason to disbelieve them. They say it transmits up to 15 metres point-to-point or seven metres generally. The most serious drawback to the machine appears to be the price, which including software, is steep, at between $2,500 and $4,250, depending on the hard disk and memory attached. The other concern has, obviously to do with the viability of the small company and its chances of beating its heavyweight competitors in the market. Its backer, Advanced Scientific Corp, boasts $20m in capital and is handling the manufacture of Pilgrim’s machines.

Serious problems

According to a report in the International Herald Tribune, Pilgrim president Philippe Truchet aims to sell 2,000 units this year, which he said would generate approximately $4.5m in revenues and pre-tax profit of approximately $85,000. While Khanide believes that Pilgrim may succeed in meeting Truchet’s business plan this year, with some good marketing, he notes that NCR and others, with huge marketing budgets, are having some serious problems marketing pen-based systems, and that may turn out to be a reason [Pilgrim] won’t succeed. Porcherot says the company is selling primarily to value-added resellers, except for big accounts like the Paris rapid transit company RATP. We want value-added resellers to sell the machine with their applications. Besides, there are an enormous number of value-added resellers in France; I think it has the most in Europe, around 5,000, he said. Pilgrim is developing with Thomson-CSF SA a Windows-based trucking application using the Global Positioning System and France Telecom’s Mobipac data transmission network. The application, which will be operative in the Paris region only, will be sold by Pilgrim and installed and maintained by Thomainfor, he said. The company plans to demonstrate the system in April.