Palm: Giving Partners The Slip?

Palm, which this year released the i705, its first Mobitex wireless device aimed at the corporate market, collects commissions from Cingular Wireless but has yet to provide a wireless activation commission for partners that are selling the devices to their customers, solution providers said.

"Palm needs to speak to the entire value proposition if they want people to embrace the i705 for vertical solutions," said Peter Nelson, president of Advanced Computer Resources, a Nashua, N.H.-based solution provider.

Glenn Cross, senior vice president of sales, service and enterprise business development at Palm, acknowledged that the vendor is lacking a solution provider commission plan for activation of wireless services. But over time, the company "will broaden our wireless strategy to give people a little more piece of the action," he said.

Palm appears to be caught without a commission strategy at the beginning of what experts agree is a convergence of PDAs with wireless connectivity. In addition to Palm's i705, Handspring recently released Treo, a combination cellular phone/PDA, and PocketPC Phone Edition devices are expected to ship this summer.

Handspring has signed a distribution agreement with Global Wireless Data, Norcross, Ga., and is finalizing a contract with Brightpoint, Indianapolis, said Kendall Fargo, vice president of Internet and enterprise business at Handspring. Both distributors are also master agents for most wireless carriers so they can offer device sales and activation in one package.

At the same time, an Ingram Micro spokeswoman confirmed the distributor is in discussions with wireless carriers to act as a master agent. Ingram Micro wants to provide the mobile devices, activation, software and configuration services for solution providers, she said.