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visorcentral.com >> Stories >> Business
Handspring extends Palm OS license through 2009


Wed Apr 11, 2001 - 10:13 AM EDT - By Marcus Adolfsson

Palm and Handspring, two worldwide leaders in innovative handheld computers, today announced that Handspring has extended its license of the Palm OS operating system. Under the terms of a new agreement reached this week, Handspring can continue to develop and market products based on the world-leading Palm OS through April 2009. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The Palm OS is the most successful handheld operating system in the world, as reflected by worldwide market share of Palm OS based products. With the new license agreement in place, Palm and Handspring will continue to collaborate in bringing ongoing innovation to the Palm OS.

"Handspring is a great platform partner," said Alan Kessler, general manager of Palm's Platform Solutions Group. "We are excited about our efforts to expand the Palm OS, making mobile and wireless handhelds pervasive across consumer, business and education solutions."

"I am very happy that we have extended our licensing agreement for Palm OS, a critical component of our current and future products," said Jeff Hawkins, Handspring chairman and chief product officer. "Extending the license ensures that we can continue to build great Palm OS based products for many years to come. It also guarantees that Palm and Handspring will continue to work together to refine and enhance the Palm OS so that it will meet the needs of the rapidly changing mobile computing market."

Since licensing the Palm OS in 1998, Handspring has delivered a full line of expandable handheld computers. "We value greatly our relationship with Palm and the ability to use its leading Palm OS," said Donna Dubinsky, Handspring CEO. "The openness and ease-of-integration of the Palm OS allows Handspring to benefit from the advantages of a powerful platform, while adding significant differentiation, such as our Springboard expansion architecture."

Handspring has worked closely with Palm to support the Palm OS, such as integrating Handspring-developed features such as USB and 16-bit color support back into the Palm OS for the benefit of all licensees.