PalmSource to Announce Two New Licensees

PalmSource is going to announce two new licensees in the coming weeks, according to EE Times. It was already known that the company plans to announce a new licensee at next week's developer's seminar. This is the first indication that there would be two.

According to the EE Times article, these new licensees will release products for vertical markets. This means they will meet the needs of a particular group, rather than being for general use. The Garmin iQue 3600, with its built-in GPS receiver, is an example of this.

This is in keeping with PalmSource's strategy of only granting licenses to companies that want to explore new markets, rather than making general purpose handhelds that will compete directly with current licensees.

It is known that one of these will be a new company created to develop a Palm OS device. Besides these few facts, nothing else is known about these new licensees.

More Security Coming, Too

The same article says that PalmSource will soon make a major security-related announcement. It has been working since late 2001with RSA Security to make its operating system more secure. PalmSource is expected to announce a new security API that will add RC4 encryption at next week's developer seminar. It is intended to allowing large companies using Palm OS handhelds to have a secure architecture that protects data traveling over both wired and wireless networks.

Related Links

• PalmSource Developer Seminar Preview
• Platform Licensing: Different Roads, Same Destination?