LADYDRAGON.COM - Palm Branded Handhelds Have 77 Percent Share of Canadian Retail Market

Thursday December 20, 2001

Evans Research Reports Palm Branded Handhelds Have 77 Percent Share of Canadian Retail Market, Leading in All Participating Price Categories

Palm Canada Inc. today announced its continued leadership position in the Canadian handheld computing market. According to Evans Research, sales of Palm(TM) branded handheld computers led calendar Q3 sales with 77 percent of the overall retail market, 90 percent of the under $250 retail market, 53 percent of the $250-$349 retail market, 98 percent of the $350-$449 retail market, and 41 percent of the $450-$699 retail market.

In addition, products using the Palm OS(R) platform accounted for 91.1 percent of all handheld devices shipped in the third quarter of 2001. "Despite the devastating events of September 11 and a looming recession, the Q3 shipment numbers are a telling sign of how high consumer loyalty is to the Palm brand," said Albert Daoust, an analyst with Toronto-based Evans Research. "In fact, if these sales rates continue into Q4, the handheld market will have achieved a 39 percent growth in shipments over 2000."

More than 800,000 Canadians have embraced Palm products as the fastest and user-friendliest handhelds available. "Heading into the holiday season home stretch, we are confident that we will continue to maintain our leading market share," said Michael Moskowitz, president and general manager, Palm Canada Inc.

"It's a fantastic way to close out the year, knowing not only that Palm products are consumers' No. 1 choice, but that our OS partners and members of the Palm Economy have remained true to the brand as well, and have not wavered on bringing increasingly better and more popular products to market."

Promotions Set Stage for Solid Fourth Quarter With the goal of putting a Palm handheld in every stocking this holiday season, Palm has reduced the price of the new Palm m125 handheld from $379 CDN (estimated street price) to just $299.

In addition to the price reduction, Palm also has launched a special promotion for its expansion line of products, offering customers a free 16MB Panasonic Secure Digital (SD) expansion card and $375 CDN (estimated street price) worth of coupons for additional expansion products with the purchase of a Palm m125, m500 or m505 handheld. The promotion runs through Jan. 7, 2002 and is available at all major retailers.

About Palm, Inc.

Palm, Inc. is a pioneer in the field of mobile and wireless Internet solutions and a leading provider of handheld computers, according to IDC (December 2000). Based on the Palm OS(R) platform, Palm's handheld solutions allow people to carry and access their most critical information wherever they go. Palm(TM) handhelds address the needs of individuals, enterprises and educational institutions through thousands of application solutions.

The Palm OS platform is also the foundation for products from Palm's licensees and strategic partners, such as Acer, Franklin Covey, HandEra (formerly TRG), Handspring, IBM, Kyocera, Samsung, Sony and Symbol Technologies. Platform licensees also include AlphaSmart, Garmin and Nokia.

The Palm Economy is a growing global community of industry-leading licensees, world-class OEM customers, and approximately 175,000 innovative developers and solution providers that have registered to develop solutions based on the Palm OS platform. Palm went public on March 2, 2000. Its stock is traded on the Nasdaq national market under the symbol PALM.