Palm and Symbian team up

Soon, users of the popular handheld devices will be able to check their

calendars, read their e-mail, send a fax, and call their office all using a

single device. 3Com’s Palm group and the Psion-led Symbian alliance announced

plans to develop pen-based, mobile computer and communications devices using the

Palm user Interface. Symbian member Nokia said it will develop a new family of

personal digital assistants, that will use the Palm’s pen and touch-sensitive

screen to let users access emails and the Web, trade stocks, and enter and

retrieve other information. The systems will use the Epoc operating system,

which Psion developed and which has since been updated by Symbian with wireless

access the Internet. Nokia will start selling the products in America within two

years.

"The proposed joint initiative between Symbian and Palm, when concluded,

will further increase the strength of the Symbian alliance, particularly in the

U.S. market,'' said Psion chief executive David Levin. "What we're doing is

providing the Palm operating system on top of the Epoc 32 kernel, which is part

of the Epoc platform," added Palm President Alan Kessler. "The Palm

operating system is available on different hardware, it's available on different

kernels as well. We have a kernel that's embedded in the Palm OS. There may be

other kernels that we provide the Palm platform on in the future. In this case

we're delighted to be able to work with Symbian and with Nokia to be able to

provide our services on top of the Symbian platform. And in fact that's how the

architecture will work.''

Analysts said the deal would pose a major problem for Microsoft as the

Palm-Symbian deal will essentially add a high-power engine to Palm’s sporty

design. "The No.1 in handheld computing and the No.1 manufacturer of

cellular phones have agreed the future platform for voice and data convergence

in the wireless space,'' said Kessler.