In addition to the licensing agreement, Acer and Palm plan to jointly develop versions of the Palm OS based on the local languages of the Asia Pacific Region and China. The move is one of the first positive signs to come out of the Santa Clara, Calif., company in some time. Two weeks ago, Palm and Extended Systems Inc. announced that they had agreed to terminate their proposed merger. The deal, which called for Palm to acquire Extended Systems, was announced in March and was to close in June. On the same day, May 17, Palm announced it was lowering its revenue estimates for its fiscal fourth quarter, which it will announce at the end of June.
Palm currently sells Palm-branded handhelds in Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Singapore.
It also sells a Japanese-language Palm m500. Other notable licensees include Handspring, IBM, Kyocera Wireless, Sony, Samsung Electronics and Symbol Technologies. More than 155,000 developers are registered to develop Palm software and solutions, and there are currently 10,000 applications for the Palm. Officials from Palm and Acer declined to comment on unannounced plans. Custom News ZDNet News brings you a summary of top headlines each business day.