As I've said, I was not lucky enough to see one of these units in action. But freelance writer Mark Walser wrote an article on the Hiptop for our sister site MCommerceTimes. In his article, he greatly praised the diminutive unit. He liked the Hiptop's data entry and navigation features, which includes a "Glowing Push Wheel" (think of a mood-colored jog wheel from a Handspring) and a Jump Button. Walser also loved the screen, even though it is grayscale. "The resolution capabilities are, in a word, magnificent. The 240X160 pixel screen gives the user a crisp clear picture," he said.

Walser also called the IM function of the Hiptop very important. Because the back-end of the device does not depend on SMS, which actually uses servers to receive and store messages before they're sent on, this flavor of wireless IM is much closer to IM'ing on PCs. The device's IM is actually HTML-based, just like the Web interfaces on some of the popular public IM networks. "I believe the Hiptop will open up a massive market for messaging and data usage in the USA, and will also drive new revenues for a carrier because of it," he said.

The sound quality of ringtones is also very good, he said. The unit uses a MIDI synthesizer to playback fairly rich sound, and can handle up to eight simultaneous instrument voices. "This will make it a great device for playback and sharing of all the popular music and tones that kids and other users want to use," he said.

About the only perceived drawback with the device is a lack of a desktop sync application. Instead, Danger made a strategic decision to instead go with a Web based Mail/Contacts interface that exists within a personal Web portal, accessible and updateable by the user on any Internet connection. This is not a big deal for those people who do not use a PC for calendaring. For those who do, though, it means that they can't make a change in, say, Outlook and then sync it to their Hiptop.

For those who cannot live without their Graffiti or pen-driven interfaces, you may want to steer clear of the Hiptop, which uses the QWERTY keyboard, the glowing push wheel, directional pad, and a few buttons ("menu," "back," and "jump").

The Carrier End
The entire Danger solution consists of back-end service that operates for carriers in an application-service provider (ASP) setup, a platform that uses standard development tools, and hardware-production designs. The core features support the Hiptop's multiple capabilities of IM, e-mail, HTML browsing, voice, personal-information management and entertainment applications.

The back-end platform is designed to work with all carrier networks, although Danger has chosen to launch on the GSM/GPRS voice/data network. The Hiptop service should achieve between 30-40 Kbps data rates over the GPRS network, company officials said, with the hardware reference design supporting Class 10 GPRS. The company plans to support other wireless networks later in 2002.

With the development platform, carriers can actually design units to target specific audiences. One carrier may need a solution for the young adult consumer, for example, while another carrier may want to target business users. User devices can be updated from an over-the-air solution, as well.

In terms of the Hiptop's platform, Danger developed its own virtual machine operating environment. Applications written for the Hiptop platform can be developed using development tools such as Metrowerks CodeWarrior and Microsoft Visual J++, which can then automatically converted to execute in Danger's lightweight and optimized environment.

The Danger spokesperson says the company's objective is to make the Hiptop application platform open to all developers so that it can create differentiated applications to run on the system. At this time, the company is working with select developers on an individual basis. Danger will launch its formal developer program in fall of 2002.

In addition, Danger says it has developed several hardware production designs for each carrier to consider, and carriers may choose to offer more than one Hiptop design to its customers. "Danger understands that the `ideal' configuration for the Hiptop hardware, and its look-and-feel may vary for each respective carrier and its customers," the spokesperson added.

The Verdict

The Hiptop certainly won't hurt the adoption of wireless services in the U.S, especially with wireless acceptance in the States running way behind that of Asia and Europe. The Hiptop unit itself is certainly attractive, although it will probably fare better in the consumer market than in the enterprise arena.

The big question, though, surrounds the carrier end. Will wireless companies like Verizon Wireless and Cingular sell the Hiptop line? While Danger's ASP model may be attractive to carriers, the GSM/GPRS network aspect of the system may be daunting at first. But as support for other wireless networks comes on-line -- especially CDMA and TDMA -- Hiptop will probably find its way into a wireless store near you.

Bob Woods is the managing editor of InstantMessagingPlanet.