PalmSource

From Free net encyclopedia

PalmSource, Inc. Template:NASDAQ is a software development company that develops the Palm OS PDA operating system and the BeOS, which it purchased from Be Inc. When Palm Inc was split, both PalmSource and palmOne, Inc. became independent divisions. The Palm OS runs on 38 million devices that have been sold since 1996 from hardware manufacturers including Palm, Inc., Samsung, Lenovo, Aceeca, AlphaSmart, Fossil, Inc., Garmin, Group_Sense_PDA (Xplore), Kyocera, PiTech, Sony and Symbol.

On December 8 2004, PalmSource acquired China MobileSoft, a software company with a mobile Linux offering. As a result, PalmSource has announced that they are going to extend Palm OS to run on top of the Linux architecture. PalmSource also develops several programs for the Palm OS, and as of December 2005, PalmGear claims to offer 28,769 software titles of varying genres. Palm OS software programs can also be downloaded from CNET, PalmSource, Handango, and Tucows.

In April 2005, palmOne purchased PalmSource's share of the Palm trademark and in July 2005 subsequently renamed itself Palm, Inc. As part of the agreement, palmOne granted PalmSource certain rights to Palm trademarks to PalmSource and licensees for a four-year transition period. In September 2005, Japanese company Access Co., Ltd., which specializes in mobile and embedded web browser technologies, including NetFront, acquired PalmSource for $324m.

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