DG: What about the office environment? Do you think that this combination of your solutions with Palm devices could be really exciting for people in a day-to-day work environment?

JP: In a day to day work environment, we're going to find that people have more flexibility in the choice of devices they want to use for certain circumstances. So, for example, even today I will send mail out at a moment's notice by picking up my IBM WorkPad and sending an outbound email. And everyone's going to choose what they want to use each device for, as a tool. So these new devices are not replacing specific tasks on a personal computer, rather they're augmenting the tasks they choose to do. They're really going to be much more application specific as each of these devices will become more appropriate and convenient for certain tasks.

DG: What sort of tasks are you thinking of?

JP: It comes down to the immediacy of information access. If I'm a salesperson, I need to get the latest information on any of the accounts I'm going off to. You can think about a salesperson synchronizing in the morning and bringing all relevant information to the accounts that he or she might be calling on that day. You can think about a wireless application where they're going to get the latest information prior to walking in the door. You can think about using these devices as access points for any type of information, such as a customer service rep who is repairing a piece of equipment getting the latest information. You could think about people who are setting up homepages for employees to make sure the relevant information is available to them wherever they are. They can synchronize and download, and off they go to their daily work and the information is with them.

DG: So even a doctor who is walking around and checking somebody's chart might have useful information.

JP: The doctor is a perfect example where, by having the device, which can be thought of in this case as a data capture device, there's no need for transcribing information. There wouldn't necessarily be charts. The doctor could be working directly on the Palm computing platform, entering information. It's an issue of the application being set up to simplify the process for the doctor, allowing him to enter everything. It is done. It's formally entered into the patient record. You've now avoided transcribing, you've saved time, you've automated billing, you've automated prescription creation. So the applications, for example, allow the doctor on a Palm computing platform to do a lot of the work that's being done today on charts.

DG: Let's talk a bit about security. Since IBM is indisputably an expert on enterprise computing, what are your thoughts on security now that people will be carting around corporate data in their handheld devices?

JP: Well there are really two elements on security. The wireless world isn't much different from the wired world in terms of people's willingness to give information, share information, and have a strong sense of protection available to them. It's going to change; it's going to get better. But in the meantime, we're really not at any logjam for slowing down the deployment of applications. As a matter of fact, I'd encourage my customers to start focusing on applications today and recognizing that there's competitive advantage to developing their applications sooner. And if they don't develop them, I can assure them that their competitors are developing them. So I want to make sure the focus is on the application and the value to people. Just as the Internet rolled out and security got better and stronger, you'll see more and more secure solutions here. We're preparing now to develop a security client for the Palm computing platform for our gateway product that will allow a WorkPad or a Palm OS device to tunnel information directly from that device to the network via a VPN (Virtual Private Network).