PalmSource Unveils China Strategy and New Partners

With PalmSource in China this week, a host of new announcements have been made regarding PalmSource’s entry into the Chinese market. Two new Palm OS liscensee have been announced, Legend Group Limited and Group Sense (International). As the fastest growing market for mobile information devices, China offers tremendous opportunities for PalmSource and its partners.

Other notable announcements include:

  • Opening of PalmSource subsidiary in Hong Kong and plans for a representative office in Beijing;
  • Partnership with Portable Innovation Technology ("PITECH") as the first Palm OS System Development Partner;
  • Collaboration agreement with Tsinghua-Solutions, an authorized Palm OS developer training center in Beijing;
  • Collaboration agreement with Zhong Shan University, an authorized Palm OS developer training center in Guangzhou; and,
  • Roadmap for simplified Chinese version of Palm OS.

Entering this market with leading Chinese partners is a key milestone for the continuing growth and leadership of the Palm OS platform. "We are excited to partner with Legend and GSL to bring leading edge Palm Powered(TM) products to market," said David Nagel, chief executive officer and president of PalmSource, Inc. "These world-class partners, combined with an innovative and talented developer community will catalyze a thriving Palm Economy in China."

Several hundred Palm OS developers and partners will be attending the first PalmSource China Developer Forum, to be held December 11-12, in Beijing. In addition to introducing PalmSource's new licensees Legend and GSL, current licensees Acer, Handspring, Samsung, Sony and Symbol, will also be sharing their vision for Palm Powered products in the Chinese market.

Furthermore, through PalmSource's collaboration with Tsinghua-Solutions and Zhong Shan University, developers will receive in-depth, classroom training on how to develop for Palm OS. This collaboration with two leading universities demonstrates PalmSource's commitment to the Chinese developer base by providing them with the most efficient and powerful tools to become successful Palm OS developers.

The new Palm OS Simplified Chinese operating system releases will provide localized versions of Palm OS 4.2 and Palm OS 5.3 for the China market. Palm OS 4.2 SC is targeted for Motorola 68K processors, while the Palm OS 5.3 SC is targeted for ARM processors from Intel, Motorola and Texas Instruments. These OS releases will be made available in Q2 and Q3 of 2003, respectively.

PalmSource COO Michael Mace, has commented on the recent annoucements and PalmSource China and explains a bit more about the strategy and entry into China:

Both Legend and Group Sense Limited announced that they have licensed Palm OS. Legend is China's largest PC company, and GSL is the fastest-growing handheld company in China (according to Gartner Group, based on yearly growth).

GSL didn't describe the hardware it'll be making, but its chairman gave a speech describing opportunities in several markets. Legend showed a handheld running Palm OS. It includes a 240x320 screen, card slot (I believe it was SD), soft Graffiti. Quite nice looking, and extremely lightweight.

PiTech announced that it's a Palm OS Ready partner. That means it has a sublicense to the OS that'll enable it to help other licensees bring products to market (it's similar to our relationships with Intel, Motorola, and TI). PiTech is what we call an "Original Design Manufacturer," which means it designs and builds devices for other companies.

We announced relationships with two Chinese universities that will teach Palm OS programming to students.

Several existing Palm OS licensees discussed their plans for the Chinese market, including Acer, Handspring, Palm Solutions, Samsung, Sony, and Symbol.

A bunch of us are over here at our first Chinese developer conference. China is the world's second largest handheld market, with about 20% of the world's handheld units last year.

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Way to go!

Sholey @ 12/11/2002 12:57:05 PM #
With the number mof people living in China it could do wonders for Palm!

RE: Way to go!
abosco @ 12/11/2002 1:21:13 PM #
It's the year of the Palm. :)

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This signature is witty. You like it.
Sony wins on this one!
stephen007 @ 12/11/2002 1:52:45 PM #
Sony's the real winner. Their shipping costs are going to go down ;-) Now they ship all their new fangled Clie's right from Japan, straight over to China.

Stephen

RE: Way to go!
jtopf @ 12/12/2002 2:07:28 PM #
Shipping costs are an insignifigant part of the cost of a PDA. Anyways I think Palm SG already manufactures the Zire in PRC.


jt

Q2 and Q3

markgm @ 12/11/2002 2:25:17 PM #
With these release schedules of Q2 and Q3, it'll be awhile before we see any new devices coming from this, but I know I'm excited. I'll take new palm innovations wherever they come from!

240x320 screen

kevdo @ 12/11/2002 3:08:57 PM #
Hmm... curious that Legend would make a Palm OS device with this resolution. Other than Handera I haven't seen much "official" PalmSource support for this resolution.

Maybe it's a typo.

-Kevin Crossman

RE: 240x320 screen
LarryGarfield @ 12/11/2002 4:07:56 PM #
Actually the PalmSource High-Density API does have 240x240 support via "One and a half scale" mode. (320x320 is double scale, there's also tripple and quadruple scale.) 240x320 is just adding a virtual graffiti to that.

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RE: 240x320 screen
Michael Mace @ 12/11/2002 6:32:16 PM #
A feature of the upcoming Chinese version of Palm OS is support for 240x320 screens and soft Graffiti. That screen resolution is popular with our Chinese partners.

Mike
CCO
PalmSource Inc.

RE: 240x320 screen
Gekko @ 12/11/2002 6:45:24 PM #
Hey Michael - Be careful what they try to feed you over there in China! Tastes like chicken???

Have a safe trip back and happy holidays!


RE: 240x320 screen
sub_tex @ 12/11/2002 10:34:35 PM #
". . .240x320 screens and soft Graffiti. That screen resolution is popular with our Chinese partners."

And also Americans who are waiting for someone to release that res on a PDA available here!



RE: 240x320 screen
bcombee @ 12/13/2002 12:48:28 AM #
The cool thing about 240x320 screens is that they have become commoditized. While 320x480 is much nicer, its possible to produce a much cheaper device by going with the older, lower-density screen technology -- just look at Dell's $200 PPC units for proof of that. Using this screen size along with standard ARM parts lets a company like Legend produce one hardware platform that can be targeted at Pocket PC, Palm OS, Linux, and whatever other local OSes they want to use.

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

pedanticism

aardvarko @ 12/13/2002 2:26:04 AM #
license
licensed
licensee
licensing

RE: pedanticism
fitzer @ 12/13/2002 9:07:45 AM #
Or if British
Licence ....etc.
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