Tony Glover
Novenber 23, 2003
Nov. 23--US-based handheld computing giant Palm says it wants to grab 15 percent of the smartphone market, which is currently dominated by Nokia and Microsoft. The challenge follows last week's pledge by Samsung to grow its share of the mobile market from 10 percent to 25 percent at Nokia's expense.
The spearhead of Palm's attack is the Treo 600 smartphone, retailing at 199 (E283 $338) with a contract, which it acquired in its recent takeover of Handspring, a rival handset manufacturer formed by former Palm executives.
Palm poses a threat to Nokia and Microsoft because its smartphone offers all the applications that have enabled Palm to dominate the handheld computer market in the US as well as standard smartphone applications such as mobile e-mail, picture messaging and web browsing.
"We are launching out first smartphone with network operator Orange in the UK, Switzerland and France in a short-term exclusive deal ending in March.
"But we are also talking to all the other major operators in Europe," Palm executive Todd Bradley told The Business.
An edge the Palm operating system has over Symbian, the smartphone operating system favoured by Nokia, is that it has been constantly developed for business users, particularly in the US. A total of 19,000 additional Palm applications available to Treo users include airline timetables and digital novels.
Unlike Microsoft, which is attempting to cram its desktop software into a smartphone, Palm's software and applications were conceived for handheld devices.
According to industry forecasts, the handheld computer market, which Palm dominates with a 38 percent share, will shrink by a tenth this year as users shift to smartphones. But the market for smartphones is mushrooming. IDC estimates that although only 2.36 million smartphones were sold in 2002, this year's sales will top 13 million, rising to 45 million by 2005.
This makes the move to the smartphone market crucial for Palm, which recently not only merged with Handspring but also split itself into two separately listed companies: PalmOne, the handheld device maker, and PalmSource, which licenses the operating system.
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(c) 2003, Sunday Business, London. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
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