Kyocera Extends Palm OS License Through 2005

Posted By: Ryan Wednesday, October 16, 2002 12:37:52 PM

Kyocera Wireless Corp. today announced a three-year extension to its licensing agreement with PalmSource Inc. Under terms of the agreement, Kyocera will continue expanding its line of smartphone devices utilizing the industry-leading Palm OS® platform.

The Kyocera license covers Palm OS versions 3, 4, 5 and beyond, as well as Palm applications, and may include future products.

Kyocera Wireless Corp. created the category of Palm OS-based smartphone devices, or devices that combine wireless connectivity and the Palm handheld computing platform, in North America with the March 2001 launch of its QCP 6035 smartphone. The QCP 6035 was the first device to successfully merge a wireless phone with a Palm Powered(TM) personal digital assistant. To date, Kyocera has sold more than 250,000 smartphones in North America.

"Our ongoing relationship with PalmSource is the foundation of Kyocera's converged device development plans into the foreseeable future," said Skip Speaks, president and CEO of Kyocera Wireless Corp. "We pioneered this category and we continue to lead with our new 7135 smartphone. Together, we'll continue making great products that keep consumers and enterprises alike connected, entertained and organized."

The upcoming 7135 is the first smartphone with an expansion slot, a 65,000-color display, and an on-board MP3 player. It also incorporates GPS position-location technology and CDMA2000 1X for data speeds of up to 153 kbps.

For PalmSource, the agreement further extends the Palm OS platform onto high-speed third-generation wireless networks and creates new opportunities to support wireless access to enterprise networks. Kyocera Wireless will continue to support a PalmSource application developers program.

"Kyocera's innovation and leadership role in the creation of smart phones has helped to establish the Palm OS platform as the industry-leading standard. Our continued partnership will accelerate the expansion of the smartphone market and provide users with new innovative devices," said David Nagel, president and chief executive officer of PalmSource.

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3 more years!

amflores @ 10/16/2002 1:47:34 PM #

Well, now we can rest and be sure that M$ will not take over the PDA business for the next 3 years....at least by 100% :)

RE: 3 more years!

drw @ 10/17/2002 12:37:23 AM #

Here is a warning from someone who just bought a T-mobile PPCPE. I read it on some other forum. It's not inflamatory, only a statment of truth.

"Please, beware of Pocket PC ,- buy only if you need multimedia - media player , video , skins and bla bla bla If you want stable system , I recomend to you stay with Palm."

---
David

7135: still waiting....

arw4f @ 10/16/2002 2:42:37 PM #

I haven't seen the 7135 yet...is it available anywhere to see in person???

RE: 7135: still waiting....

Cutting Crew 2 @ 10/16/2002 2:52:06 PM #

Find the Kyocera 7135 lurking about, bouncing from hand to hand at the CTIA show this week, surely...

---
Mike Compeau

RE: 7135: still waiting....

jeffmwknight @ 10/16/2002 3:59:55 PM #

See the specs here.....

http://www.kyocera-wireless.com/showroom/showcase/coming_soon_7135.htm

CMDA and GSM?

NikMan @ 10/16/2002 3:04:36 PM #

I am from Europe/Slovenia!

I wonder will they release also an European version for our Networks!
Also will they release a PalmOS 5 version?

RE: CMDA and GSM?

Token User @ 10/16/2002 3:06:12 PM #

All the reently announced PalmOS based PDA/Smartphones have been OS 4.1 based (or lower).

The fact that the OS Licence ha been extended for Kyocera (and recent Samsung as well), bodes well for future development.

As for the 7135 in a European market ... I'd love to see this as GSM triband (world) phone. But contrary to popular FUD, CDMA is available outside of North America. Predominantly SE Asia (Japan, Korea, China), but also in Europe (UK, Germany, Poland, Ukraine, Romania ... approx 2.2M subscribers, and growing), and the south Pacific (Australia, and New Zealand). The Kyo 6035 is available in a lot of these places, so I imagine the 7135 will follow suit.

Check out http://www.cdg.org/world/region.asp?region=Europe%20-%20Russia for the European coverage.

~ "Don't be too proud of this technological terror you've constructed." - DV ~

RE: CMDA and GSM?

frauen1 @ 10/16/2002 4:01:35 PM #

Don't forget - one of the big reasons that Palm chose the ARM processor family was that it was favored by cellular phone makers (such as Nokia, back in the days when Palm and Nokia were going to try to build a merged PalmOS/Symbian software base).

RE: CMDA and GSM?

ocspub @ 10/16/2002 4:27:48 PM #

> CDMA is available outside of North America.
> Predominantly SE Asia (Japan, Korea, China),
> but also in Europe (UK, Germany, Poland,
> Ukraine, Romania ... approx 2.2M subscribers,
> and growing)

Which carriers in, say, the UK and Germany are
providing CDMA service today? The link you provided
highlights those countries, but there seems to be
no further information available (search doesn't
return anything, clicking on country name doesn't
return anything...).

Oliver

RE: CMDA and GSM?

Token User @ 10/16/2002 5:39:40 PM #

Hutchison and Orange are CDMA licencees in the UK and Germany. Currently in evaluation modes, Hutchison have demonstrated 3G CDMA technology along the M4 corridor.

Russia has a deployed CDMA network. The others are approved, but not yet deployed.

~ "Don't be too proud of this technological terror you've constructed." - DV ~

RE: CMDA and GSM?

ocspub @ 10/16/2002 7:39:07 PM #

Ah. :-) 3G -- the thing that, real soon, will
solve all our data access problems. If it doesn't
bankrupt the carriers first ;-)

So basically, there isn't much of a CDMA network in
Europe yet that an owner of this device could count on.

Oliver

RE: CMDA and GSM?

bcombee @ 10/16/2002 11:26:20 PM #

Fortune just published a column on the ascendency of CDMA:

http://www.fortune.com/indexw.jhtml?channel=artcol.jhtml&doc_id=209811

From reading it, it looks like CDMA technologies have a good chance of taking over a lot of the major markets, and their cost advantage may eventually push aside GSM. Of course, that's just the writer's opinion.

--
Ben Combee, CodeWarrior for Palm OS technical lead
Programming help at www.palmoswerks.com

CDMA Bluetooth Solutions

pdangel @ 10/17/2002 5:12:50 AM #

Most CDMA MSM chipsets from Qualcomm have Bluetooth support onboard as well. Bluetooth chip solutions like this are very important for Bluetooth (see costs, volume, easy to use etc.). You will see CDMA Bluetooth Solutions integrated into interesting new products by Kyocera, Samsung and Sony imho....it's just a matter of time. (more info see link)
http://ragingbull.lycos.com/mboard/boards.cgi?board=XTND&read=8161

"There are 2 kind of people my friend....those with wires and those without"

RE: CMDA and GSM?

Fly-By-Night @ 10/17/2002 6:19:47 AM #

While it is true that most of Europe will soon be moving to CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) and away from TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access) GSM; the CDMA standards between USA/SE Asia and Europe are different (and largely incompatible). USA et al use (I think) cdmaOne, and Europe CDMA2000 -- could be the other way round, just doing this off the top of my head!

FBN

RE: CMDA and GSM?

Token User @ 10/17/2002 12:10:24 PM #

I could be wrong on this, but my understanding is that in terms of local carrier speak, cdmaOne == digital, cdma2000 == PCS. That means that phones that are labelled as trimode (as opposed to the GSM triband world phones) are analogue, cdmaOne, and cdma2000 compatible.

The chipsets produced by Qualcomm are very cool. They are moving to the newer ARM cores (ARM7 -> ARM9? sorry, my notes from the 2002 BREW conference are at home), and incorporate a lot of very cool fuinctionality, including Bluetooth, and aGPS (assisted GPS - to address the USA E911 mandate, still requiers access to a cell tower, but just wait fo the slew of location based services about to arrive on cellphones :)).

As telcos move to 3G and 4G networks, we will see a convergence of CDMA and GSM. A world standard is required. At the moment we are at a point akin to the ethernet vs token ring type debates ... which will be the underlying bearer medium.

~ "Don't be too proud of this technological terror you've constructed." - DV ~

Size matters

BLVB @ 10/16/2002 3:25:23 PM #

I'd have their existing PalmPhone but the screen is so small it is unusable. I hope they make on that is a PDA first! Add on the CMDA phone as an intercom - plug in a headset for private calls.

RE: Size matters

derby @ 10/16/2002 4:29:00 PM #

You're right, it does matter. But there are enough "PDA first" devices out there. The sole reason I haven't purchased a smartphone yet is that they are too PDA-like (read: big). I want a small phone form-factor w/ PDA capabilities.

I'm actually leaning more towards the i500 since it looks to be smaller than the 7135, but we'll see once we can put them next to each other.

-- derby

What's it cost?

robman @ 10/16/2002 5:31:31 PM #

Anybody know what it costs to get a Palm liscense? Is it a per-machine fee?

Palm Researcher at the University of Texas at Austin
http://www.edb.utexas.edu/petrosino/pda

RE: What's it cost?

TDS Computer @ 10/16/2002 8:52:34 PM #

I have read in the past that Palm makes about $8.00 per license, but that was for 3.5 & 4.x. I am not sure that it is any more or less expensive with 5.x

Visit us at www.tdscomputer.com

RE: What's it cost?

bcombee @ 10/16/2002 11:22:15 PM #

While I don't have exact details, most license contracts like that would usually have a major up-front charge, either an initiation fee, a support fee, or an advance royalties. Usually, the contract would also specify a minimum software royalty -- if you sell under X devices, you still have to pay as if you sold X devices. Finally, its likely to have lots of other provisions, like requiring the licensee to commit to support marketing activities like trade shows and advertising.

--
Ben Combee, CodeWarrior for Palm OS technical lead
Programming help at www.palmoswerks.com