Palm Launches Tungsten Brand For Enterprise Products; Releases E-Mail Server

Palm

Todd Bradley, CEO of Palm's Solutions Group, said during a morning press conference that the handheld maker will distinguish products aimed at the enterprise under the Tungsten brand. The company will use the brand Zire for consumer products.

The handheld maker launched the Tungsten brand with the final release of its e-mail server product, now called the Tungsten Mobile Information Management solution (MIM). Palm has been developing the software for some time. It released a hosted version of the software with the launch of the Palm i705 in January.

Ken Wirt, Palm's senior vice president of marketing, said Palm's focus on the enterprise is continuing to grow so there is a need to differentiate between business and consumer products. "We are developing customized product for each group, and we want to provide sub-brands for each group," he said.

Palm has been roundly criticized by analysts for focusing too heavily on the consumer market and ignoring the needs of business users. This year the company has been working hard to turn that perception around, unveiling a more powerful operating system that supports the more robust ARM processors and developing software that is more palatable to the IT market.

MIM, a behind-the-firewall PIM server, is designed to appeal to corporate IT managers, Palm executives said. It will support Windows NT, Windows 2000 and Solaris operating systems and work with Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Domino e-mail services, Wirt said.

MIM initially will support Palm 500 series and i705 handhelds over the Palm.net Mobitex network or 802.11 LANs, Wirt said. But he also noted the product is service provider independent and could in theory work with a number of wireless carriers.

Pricing for the product starts at $2,499 for a 25-seat license, Wirt said.

Palm is expected to release its first wireless handheld based on the new operating system and ARM processor in October, according to published reports. The device will hit the market just as pricing for Microsoft's powerful PocketPC is expected to drop.