Palm's Treo 650, one of the hottest smartphones on the market, is poised to become even more enchanting to corporate workers with the addition of Research In Motion's (RIM) BlackBerry push e-mail software.
Starting early next year, Palm will implement the BlackBerry software alongside its VersaMail e-mail client in order to keep a familiar look and feel in place for Palm OS users, said Joe Fabris, director of wireless marketing for Palm. Treo 650s with the BlackBerry software will be capable of accessing e-mail delivered by Microsoft Exchange or IBM Lotus Domino e-mail servers.
The BlackBerry software allows corporations to "push" e-mail from behind a firewall to mobile devices. RIM has its own hardware, also called the BlackBerry, but is looking to expand the number of devices that use its software, according to Rob Enderle, principal analyst at Enderle Group.
"The BlackBerry is a great little e-mail box, but as soon as [RIM] added telephony, they started to struggle," Enderle said. RIM offers several devices, such as the BlackBerry 7100, that allow users to make phone calls and access their e-mail. But Palm and Nokia do a much better job of integrating voice and data communications in a single device, Enderle said.
