Palm sets sights on China

By Matt Whipp

Posted on 25 Apr 2003 at 15:31

Palm has set its sights on the mobile market in China, with sales and marketing support offices and agreements with the country's largest distributor.

Palm says it will launch its full range of handheld products, comprising the Tungsten, Zire and m500 ranges into the territory.

The m100 series seems to have been forgotten, and at the London launch of the latest Tungsten and Zire, the latter was described as 'sitting alongside the m100, for now'.

The fate of the m100s aside, Palm is targeting what research firm IDC describes as the largest handheld device market in the Asia Pacific region, with handhelds offered in Simplified or Traditional Chinese, or English languages.

'We're now selling the world's favourite handheld into the world's largest market,' said Todd Bradley, president and chief executive officer, Palm Solutions Group. 'With the strength of our products and solutions, combined with support from our local distributors, partners and leading developers, we hope to delight end-users and enterprise customers in China with the best handheld user experience possible.'

While IDC recently noted a 21 per cent contraction in the global market for PDAs, year on year, for China it predicts a 14 per cent growth for 2003.

Palm has will address this market initially through distributor Digital China at both retail and enterprise levels. It will also set up support from both the retailer, free phone assistance, and email. Repair centres will also be opened in three major cities.