Sprint PCS, Palm target wireless business customers

(Telephony) Sprint PCS and Palm teamed to market and sell wireless solutions for handheld devices using the Palm operating system platform, giving Sprint PCS access to thousands of Palm's developers and a potential leg-up in the race for highly valued wireless data business customers.

"Instead of competing to own the customer, we are taking the market together," said Carl Yankowski, chief executive officer of Palm. "Palm and Sprint PCS have a greater reach than either company can reach alone."

The companies, through a non-exclusive deal, plan to offer a co-branded version of the MyPalm portal, which includes Palm wireless personal information management (PIM) services, access to personal and corporate email and e-commerce purchase options, as well as access to the Sprint PCS wireless Web via Palm handhelds and Palm OS devices. The two also will target enterprise customers, offering access to corporate e-mail, sales tool applications and corporate directories.

Early in 2001, the two companies will offer connectivity kits for the Palm III and Palm V devices to the Sprint PCS wireless Web, followed with modules that will give voice capability to Palm devices. Kyocera and Samsung have also developed smart phones based on the Palm OS platform.

The deal will give Sprint PCS access to more than 100,000 Palm developers, giving the carrier instant access to the enterprise development community.

"We'll work together for software development kits, training and development courses to help educate our developers on CDMA," said Barry Cottle, chief operating officer with Palm. "When you think about leveraging Palm with a faster network, we'll have 100,000-plus developers on that capability."