Amazon.com Goes Wireless

Amazon.com said Monday it is launching a wireless e-commerce service, to be available on new Palm VII devices.

Amazon.com said it bought Convergence Corp. for about $20 million in stock to provide backbone software for the service, to be offered as 3Com kicks off the national launch of its Palm VII organizer. Closely-held Convergence makes software that provides Internet access for information appliances.

"By untying customers from their desktops, we're empowering them to get things done and off their to-do lists - not just at anytime - but from anywhere," Jeff Bezos, founder and chief executive of Amazon.com, said in a statement.

Amazon.com customers can download free software from www.amazon.com/anywhere or from www.Palm.Net to get the service.

Amazon.com said it's the first e-commerce retailer to join the Wireless Application Protocol Forum, a global effort to develop standards for wireless data and e-commerce transactions on the Internet.

By Steve Gelsi