LADYDRAGON.COM - Palm Leads 2001 Handheld Market in Canada Industry Analysts Report 71 Percent of Overall Market Belongs to Palm Branded Handhelds

Wednesday April 10, 2002

Palm Leads 2001 Handheld Market in Canada Industry Analysts Report 71 Percent of Overall Market Belongs to Palm Branded Handhelds

Palm, Inc. continues to lead the rapidly growing Canadian handheld computing market. According to Evans Research, sales of Palm(TM) branded handheld computers led 2001 sales with 71 percent of the overall market, while products using the Palm OS(R) platform accounted for 85 percent of all handheld devices shipped in 2001.

"The Canadian handheld market grew by 37 percent over 2000, and despite increasing market diversity, strong shipment numbers are a clear sign of consumer loyalty to the Palm brand," said Albert Daoust, an analyst with Toronto-based Evans Research. "There is no doubt that 2001 was a challenging economic year -- and the technology industry was one of the hardest hit -- but in spite of this, handheld sales experienced a slight upswing, due to several new players in the market and a significant breakthrough in sales at the enterprise level."

An IDC Canada study(1) of handheld practices in the Canadian enterprise market reported that 84 percent of Canadian corporations surveyed are currently using Palm branded handhelds, while 45 percent of respondents said they plan to purchase a Palm handheld in the next 12 months.

"The majority of Canadian organizations have a solid handheld strategy in place today, but this pales in comparison to what the market will grow to in as little as one year," said Warren Chaisatien, mobile computing analyst, IDC Canada. "It appears that handheld computing -- spearheaded by Palm -- is now filtering into the enterprise, and its momentum will continue to build as mobile computing becomes a necessary extension of the corporate IT infrastructure."

To date, more than 16 million Palm handhelds have been sold worldwide -- 850,000 in Canada alone -- and the number of Canadian developers for the Palm OS platform jumped to more than 10,000 in 2001.

"2001 was a strong year for Palm Canada, and the holiday shopping season was especially successful," said Michael Moskowitz, president and general manager, Palm Canada Inc. "The enterprise market is now truly discovering the value of Palm handhelds as new industries adopt a more sophisticated approach to mobile computing. In addition to this, Palm OS developers continued to open new areas of business interest for us by bringing innovative and more popular products to market."

New Products Set Stage for 2002

Launched in Canada this month, the Palm m130 and m515 color handhelds offer enhanced expansion technology, improved colour screens and a bonus CD-ROM with software applications that can be installed for added capabilities. Both products feature bright displays that support more than 65,000 colours, Palm's dual-expansion technology, and access to more than 13,000 commercial software applications in addition to the popular Personal Information Manager (PIM) and intuitive user interface that have made Palm products the world's favorite handheld computers.

The two new colour handhelds round out Palm's early 2002 product lineup.

The Palm m130 and m515 handhelds are available now in most countries worldwide, and in Canada for an estimated Canadian street price of $449 and $649, respectively.

About PalmSource, Inc. and Palm, Inc.

Information about PalmSource, Inc., the Palm OS(R) subsidiary of Palm, Inc., is available at www.palmsource.com. Information about Palm, Inc. is available at http://www.palm.com/aboutpalm