Friday March 2, 6:14 am Eastern Time
Palm grows in Japan, ties up with DoCoMo
TOKYO, March 2 (Reuters) - U.S.-based Palm Inc said on Friday it had nabbed more than half of Japan's handheld computer market and was poised for further growth with the advent of wireless versions of its products in Japan.
``We've built the foundation for further growth,'' said Craig Will, representative director at Palm Computing, its local unit.
Palm is the world's leading maker of software and hardware for handheld computers, also known as personal digital assistants (PDAs). It has moved recently to break into Japan, which has been long-dominated by local players, most notably Sharp Corp .
Will said that Palm would join with Japan's dominant mobile operator NTT DoCoMo Inc to introduce a wireless product this year. A Palm Computing representative said last year that a wireless Palm product would appear in the first half of 2001, but it had not specified which mobile operator it would tie up with.
``We are bringing out a next generation product based on DoCoMo's packet system later this year,'' Will said at a
Credit Suisse First Boston investment conference.
Packet refers to a technology that sends data back and forth in short bursts, allowing users to access the Internet and get data without the high cost of a constant connection. DoCoMo's hugely popular i-mode cellphone Web access service, which has grown to nearly 20 million users in two years, is based on packet transmission.
Will cited a study by BCN, a news service run by Computer News Inc, which said that more than half of the handheld computers in Japan were based on Palm's operating system, which is also available in Japanese.
BCN's latest figures for April show that Palm-based handhelds made up 55.9 percent of the market.
Shares in Palm have lost 20 percent of their value this week, sanking to life lows on the Nasdaq on Thursday to close at 17 3/8 on what analysts reported as concerns that it may not reach its sales targets for the latest quarter. By contrast, the Nasdaq composite index (^IXIC - news) rose 1.47 percent.
Sharp said in February that it would take its PDA, the Zaurus, global this year, while NEC Corp and Toshiba Corp have said that they plan to enter the handheld computer market, possibly with wireless products.
biz.yahoo.com |
