Tokyo, Sept. 3 (Bloomberg) -- NTT DoCoMo Inc., Japan's No. 1 mobile phone company, and Palm Inc., the No. 1 maker of handheld PCs, will jointly develop an Internet-ready palmtop and start selling it in the first half of 2001, the Nihon Keizai newspaper reported, without citing sources.
The handheld computer will have a display about three times as large as that of the typical cellular phone, the report said. Under the plan, users will pay Palm fees based on the amount of content downloaded through the handheld devices from the Internet, the report said.
The move comes as Palm attempts to expand its market share in Japan. Palm has a 55 percent share of the global handheld market, while in Japan it has a just 14 percent of the market, according to IDC Japan Ltd., a technology research company.
The stakes in Japan are growing as sales of handheld PCs surged 24 percent in 1999 to 743,500 units, according to IDC Japan. That's a market of about 37 billion yen ($349 million) based on the typical selling price of 50,000 yen.
The handheld PC market of Japan, the world's second biggest economy, remains smaller than those in the U.S. and Europe.
(Sep/03/2000 1:10 ET
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``For early adopting end-users, our collaboration with Extended Systems also provides immediate compatibility and high-quality communications between personal computers enabled by 3Com's Bluetooth offerings and Palm(tm) handhelds -- the most pervasive handheld computers on the market. Bluetooth is a key element in 3Com's mission to connect consumers and commercial organizations to information and services in more innovative, simple and reliable ways than any other communications company.''
3Com's extensive knowledge and delivery of mobile connectivity hardware and software solutions combined with Extended Systems Bluetooth and data management application expertise establishes a solid foundation for a powerful Bluetooth product line.
3Com Corporation Licenses Bluetooth Technology from Extended Systems.February 24, 2000-Extended Systems (Nasdaq: XTND), a world leader in short-range wireless connectivity, announced today that it has licensed its Bluetooth software technology to 3Com Corporation (Nasdaq: COMS) for use in Palm, Inc. products.
"By combining forces with companies like Extended Systems, 3Com hopes to provide people and businesses with cordless connectivity to voice, data and e-business applications regardless of their physical location."
"Teaming with 3Com on Bluetooth is a natural extension of our software development leadership," explained Steve Simpson, president and CEO of Extended Systems. "We welcome the opportunity to contribute to the explosive growth of Bluetooth. Together with our PC applications and hardware solutions, our embedded protocol stacks continue to fuel the growth of mobile information management by expanding the sphere of wireless connectivity."
In the future, mobile users will operate several specialized devices to connect to and manage data. To do this, open standards are needed for interoperability between devices. Bluetooth radio frequency and IrDA infrared are global specifications for short-range wireless connectivity, endorsed by the leading PC, PDA and cellular phone manufacturers. Extended Systems develops protocol software, which enables mobile devices to exercise short-range wireless communications. |
