Palm Working With BEA To Develop Web Services For Handhelds

Palm BEA Systems

Palm plans to develop tools and a device-side software suite to enable developers to deploy Web services and extend enterprise applications to Palm handhelds.

In turn, BEA, San Jose, Calif., will work with Palm to integrate the device-side software with BEA WebLogic Server 7 and BEA WebLogic Workshop to control the applications on the server side, officials said.

A joint software package from BEA and Palm is slated to be generally available by Q1 2003, according to the companies.

The core technology behind the solution will be Palm's Reliable Transport technology, a secure platform for sending XML data between servers and Palm devices.

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The goal is to have Palm handheld applications interface with back-end systems via open standards, the company said in a statement.

Although Palm and IBM already unveiled a similar deal in July to enable IBM WebSphere-based apps to run on Palm devices, a BEA spokesman said Tuesday that WebLogic Workshop is a key differentiator of the BEA deal.

WebLogic Workshop is BEA's tool that simplifies the development of J2EE-based Web services for application developers that may not be skilled in Java.

The spokesman said that once the BEA-Palm software is available, companies can build and deploy Web services on Palm devices, not just J2EE-based applications.

John Rymer, research vice president at Giga Information Group, said that WebLogic Workshop is one of the key tools in BEA's arsenal to fight IBM, which has been firing "heavy attack" at BEA.

"I'm expecting to see a lot of emphasis on WebLogic Workshop going forward," Rymer said.