On Hand at All Times

Ten years ago, you probably had never even heard of it, but nowyou can't live without it-at least that's the bet of thecompanies racing to provide users with always-on e-mail deliveredround-the-clock to wireless devices. "There definitely areusers who want this," says Seamus McAteer, an analyst withJupiter Communications. That's because those who sign up forpushed, wireless e-mail are never out of reach of customers,employees or anyone else who needs to contact them.

The big news is that Palm has jumped on this bandwagon. For thepast year, all the buzz has swirled around RIM's BlackBerry, apocket-sized device that works in most of the United States.BlackBerry runs on paging networks that were built for carryingdata. That system has much wider coverage than do today'swireless voice networks. But now Palm wants in on the action.