David Christopher, Palm Computing’s product marketing manager yesterday fleshed out more of the details of the specification for the Palm VII handheld device, the next generation PalmPilot PC officially launched Wednesday. Speaking to ComputerWire, he said Palm, a subsidiary of 3Com Corp, jumped from its current model, the Palm III, to Palm VII because it considered the product to be such a quantum leap from anything we’ve done before. He said 3Com was deliberately leaving a gap to fill it with other products, although he declined to give any details about when these products would be announced or what they would look like. He did however, say Palm would not rule out the possibility that it might, at some stage in the future, think of developing a combined handheld PC/mobile phone product, similar to the one Qualcomm is developing based on Palm’s technology and using its digital mobile phone. Christopher said the company viewed the launch of the Palm VII as being significant because it is the first device to offer wireless connectivity off the shelf. Other products, including Palm’s other handheld devices, do offer internet connectivity, he said, but users have to buy extra add- ons and get themselves linked up with a service provider. With the Palm VII, however, all that is included the minute you take the device out of the box, he said. You can literally be up and running on the internet within minutes. He said the product would cost less than $800, which was at least $200 less than comparable, internet-enabled devices. Christopher confirmed that the Palm would only work within regions covered by BellSouth’s wireless network. He stressed users should not end up having to pay roaming charges since BellSouth’s network was the most extensive of all the wireless networks in the US, covering 260 major areas.