Reading the Future in His Palm
Technologists at scores of companies are developing Internet-linked appliances, from cordless Web pads to smart refrigerators, and frantically selling the dream of an always-on, always-connected digital culture. Rarely do they mention the potential pitfalls of that vision. Eric Benhamou, chief executive of 3Com Corp., is among the few willing to take a step back and ask, “Before we network another 50 million homes, how connected do we really want to be?”
Coming from the builder of the Palm hand-held computer, any note of caution seems provocative.
Benhamou, 44, is an Algerian native who grew up in France and emigrated to this country in 1976. He co-founded networking pioneer Bridge Communications, acquired by 3Com in 1987.
Benhamou, a member of President Clinton’s Information Technology Advisory Committee, sat down at his Santa Clara headquarters to discuss the challenges facing the thoughtful development of ubiquitous computing and network-connected appliances.
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Q: You recently wrote about an experience at a telecom trade show that brought to mind some frightening images about our electronically connected society. Can you explain?
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A: The vision I had conjures up a scenario like “The Matrix” movie, where you basically have people living in cyberspace. . . . There were 200,000 people on half a dozen square miles of the exhibit floor, all talking to each other on cell phones, not face to face. . . .
[Electronic] connections should add to rather than replace existing relationships. You still do business between people, and members of a family have to live together, they have to have something shared to have true relationships . . . being together in the same physical space and sharing meals and sharing stories and so on. Then you have a foundation where being able to have spontaneous connections--through mobile telephony, e-mail or voicemail--is additive.
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Q: Historically, technological complexity has overwhelmed many people. In light of that, how realistic is the industry vision of seamlessly interconnected, simple network appliances?
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A: Perhaps we’re still understating the magnitude of the challenge--in other words, [of] crossing the complexity chasm. But I think we’re all very aware of the fact that we have to make dramatic strides in simplifying digital technology.
[At 3Com, we talk about] the Zen of Palm, an almost quasi-religious approach to design principles and philosophies--about having just the right features but nothing more. . . . That’s foreign to the PC philosophy, where more is always better.
For example, it is always surprising to people that we never talk about the processor inside the Palm. PC vendors always tout, oh, the “Pentium 3700, 110 megahertz.” But the immense majority of Palm users don’t even know what kind of processor there is, nor should they. They should only care whether it truly does a good job of keeping track of my appointments, my telephones, my contacts, my notes. . . .
You cannot build simplicity after the fact. It has to be absolutely paramount, part of the philosophy of the entire company.
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Q: So will the creation of genuinely easy-to-use digital products require a cultural shift in the industry?
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A: It’s not just in the industry, it’s also in the mind of the public. Today many people think that technology is not an enhancement to their lives; in fact, [today’s] technology is probably an enemy. As the generations go by, the public is much more receptive to technology, finds it much more natural. And 25 years from now, one generation from now, the people who declare themselves allergic to technology will be a very small minority.
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Q: People who use new technology devices often develop what has been called “hurry sickness” or “techno stress”--a speeding up of everyday life in a multitude of small ways. Do they overstate the case?
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A: These are legitimate concerns, but it goes back to your vision of how technology should be intelligently deployed. Let me give you an example. In most modern automobiles today you have several dozen microprocessors, several dozen connected devices, but these are not obtrusive. They simplify your experience. You don’t have manual chokes anymore, just to pick one example. Lots of things happen just automatically.
Perhaps the only . . . detriment is that now it’s very hard to enjoy your weekend working on your car because you no longer understand how it all works. . . . It serves as a lesson of what we should expect in the home.
Many of the personal computers that emerged in the ‘80s are basically dead-ended. You need a restart. Palm is a restart from the PC, a completely clean slate, and that’s why it is enjoying success today. And there’ll be breakthrough inventions beyond the Palm in a few years. . . .
[To keep things simple] you have to be able to hold on to a few invariants. [The Palm] philosophy is to hold on to the operating system, the basic look and feel, [so that] anyone who used our very first Palm device would learn how to use this latest one in a matter of minutes.
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Q: Unlike other executives who promote the idea of ubiquitous computing--notably Sun’s Scott McNealy and Microsoft’s Bill Gates--you point out some of the downsides of constant digital connections. Has that raised eyebrows at 3Com or among industry colleagues?
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A: I don’t receive any criticisms of that kind. And I find it odd that some of my colleagues are just so narrowly focused on purely the technological dimension that they lose sight of the big picture. The whole purpose of creating a more connected world is to feel better. You have to enjoy yourself more, to fulfill your potential more. . . . I’m very concerned about making sure that we do things that are useful for a very broad cross section of society. And so more recently, I’ve been concerned about this digital divide issue. . . .
It is inconceivable to me that 10 years from now we have a society with 75% of the people extremely connected, who live the kind of lifestyle I’ve been describing, [with] another 20%, 25% completely adrift. . . . And we all know that this is completely crazy [and a] crisis of phenomenal proportions in the making. . . .
I don’t have the arrogance of suggesting that I know the answer to this. But [first] we have to make sure we describe the problem well. I’m personally upset when I hear people say, “Oh, this is another racial problem.” It’s not a racial problem.
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Q: This brings to mind the refrain of many young technology entrepreneurs who say their true motivation is “to change the world.” Do they seem naive to you?
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A: How many [innovations] will have the impact that the fundamental inventions have had in the last 10, 20 years? Very few. Think about the true breakthroughs, the invention of packet switching [the principal technique for transferring digital data over networks] is absolutely essential. But this goes back 25 years ago. [Also decades ago] the invention of Ethernet [a key method to network computers] by our founder, Bob Metcalfe, was absolutely a breakthrough technology. . . . The invention of the Web is a turning point. The PC, of course, along the way.
Beyond that, all of these are just incremental innovations. I’m hoping that a couple of years from now, with the benefit of perspective, we’ll be able to say, yes, the Palm was also another turning point. . . . When we have 50 million people using it.
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Q: Shifting gears, can you explain the logic of 3Com’s plan to spin off the Palm division as a separate company?
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A: Right now 3Com owns Palm. After the IPO [expected later this year], 3Com will own 80% plus. . . . But in the second phase, probably two to three quarters after the IPO itself, we’ll dividend out our ownership of Palm to 3Com shareholders. And then we’ll retain 0%.
While I’ll be chairing the board of both companies, there will be a complete separation of the two businesses. This doesn’t mean that we will not talk to each other. There will be very close relationships, but close relationships like you would have between business partners.
So 3Com has a license to the Palm OS [operating system], and 3Com is building other kinds of Internet appliances that leverage the Palm OS. But these will not be hand-held because 3Com will not compete with Palm. 3Com will be part of the Palm economy. . . .
We figured that the opportunity was so vast that we had to optimize for speed. And a small, nimble company is more up to speed.
