The smarts behind smart phones - Geoworks' operating system - includes related article on Geoworks; CEO Gordon Mayer - Company Business and Marketing - Cover Story

Communications News, April, 1997 by Kerry Pipes

Geoworks CEO Gordon Mayer talks about merging telephony and data with cellular technology.

What do Nokia, Ericsson NEC and Motorola all have in common? More than just wireless communications. Each is designing and building new products around an operating system developed by Alameda, Calif.-based Geoworks that is setting the standard in the integrated communications market.

Geoworks' president and CEO, Gordon Mayer, recently described the future of convergent information devices within the realms of cellular technology.

"The delivery of more kinds of information and communication anytime, anywhere is becoming a reality. And our operating systems combined with the products of the original equipment manufacturers, like Nokia and Hewlett-Packard, are paving that road," he says.

Essentially, this convergence is a hybrid of paging and cellular technology combined with developing computer technology. Companies like Nokia, Ericsson, NEC, and Motorola are beginning to manufacture "smart" phones and other devices that allow the user not only digital voice communication, but the luxuries of data exchange, faxing, paging, e-mail and even Internet access. All of this is or will soon be available, through products that are similar in size and shape to a traditional cellular phone.

Geoworks, founded in 1983, first appeared on the map back in the mid-1980s when it designed the original software application for on-line pioneer America Online.

At the time, Geoworks was operation on a contract basis developing software for a number of companies. In 1986, the company launched GEOS, a graphical operating system designed for 8-bit microprocessors and originally distributed with the Commodore 64. A year later the company began development of GEOS for the PC market and the emerging consumer computing devices (CCD) categories.

Further refinements in 1990 led to critical accolades for the GEOS program, but industry giant Microsoft proved too powerful a foe in the PC market.

"There aren't many more powerful in the industry than Microsoft," Mayer concedes. "The Geoworks program was actually reviewed and rated better than the Microsoft products, but ultimately, Microsoft had all the right connections--better developers and better relationships with OEMs."

When Mayer arrived at Geoworks in 1993, the company shifted gears and gambled that its software operating systems would set the standard in the paging and cellular communications market. Today, the company is at the center of the brewing smart phone storm.

Says Mayer, "We've got three of the four major manufacturers using our operating systems in their products. We have a technically good product and a platform that manufacturers can easily build off of. I believe we've set the standard."

Although smart phone technology is not presently available in the U.S., it is in Europe and Asia and is doing quite well since its introduction last March, according to Mayer.

"I felt that a convergence of existing technology was only natural and that it was a solid investment for two reasons," Mayer continues. "First, there had been no major revolutions in telephone communications since the 1950s, and secondly, computers have rapidly developed. We thought we could combine the two technologies and create a new generation of computers."

Mayer doesn't believe that the traditional pager or cellular phone markets will disappear, though. "I really think of this technology as being part of the cellular phone market," he adds. "Smart phones won't replace cellular phones, they'll enhance them."

Customers who don't need all the capabilities of exchanging information in multiple formats. but just need an affordable way to be contacted. will continue using pagers. Likewise. cellular phones will continue to be used by consumers who just need voice communications.

But for mobile business people who need integrated technology for voice communication, faxing, e-mailing and organizing, smart phones may be the answer. Soon. customers will be able to customize their smart phones with specific content and services such as news,weather, investment information, sports and entertainment.

Potential territorial encroachment from Microsoft Windows CE doesn't concern Mayer too much either.

"That product essentially is a hand-held PC. Mayer says. "It's a low-cost small computer that runs traditional-type software. The smart phone is not a PC, it's a communicator. It's a night-and-day difference from Windows CE."

Mayer is also quick to add that Geoworks systems can be customized to fit the manufacturers' needs, whereas Microsoft is the king of the PC world and subjects must conform to MS demands.

Mayer believes that smart phones could be selling 75 million units a year in five years. In Europe, where the technology is already in place, a smart phone costs around $1,300, weighs 14 ounces and is about the size of a regular cell phone.

Mayer says the technology is on the way to the U.S., as well as Canada and Latin America, and will probably be available in the second half of 1997.