Palm & RIM Connect with BlackBerry Inside

After many false hopes over many months, Palm and Research In Motion (RIM) have created a massive amount of buzz after they finally formally announced the forthcoming availability of the BlackBerry Connect push email solution for the Treo 650 starting in early 2006. 

According to the press release, the solution will enable the following:

• push-based email using BlackBerry Connect with Palm’s VersaMail email client;
• support for Microsoft Exchange and IBM Lotus Domino;
• wireless calendar synchronization;
• remote address lookup of corporate email directory;
• convenient email-attachment viewing;
• Triple DES encryption; and
• IT policy enforcement and commands (such as remotely disabling or wiping email and PIM data from a device in the event it is lost or stolen).

Aside from this the release also states that “BlackBerry Connect will be available for new and existing Treo 650 users through select carriers. Pricing and distribution details will be provided at a later date. The Treo 650 with BlackBerry Connect is being demonstrated this week at the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2005 in Orlando, Fla. at Palm’s and RIM’s booths -- No. 417 and No. 515, respectively.”  (Please let me know if someone has pictures from the symposium and BB Connect in action).

Evidently there are tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of Treonauts who have been anxiously waiting for the BlackBerry Connect software to become available on their Treo since it promises to combine the best smartphone with the leading wireless email solution thus providing us with the best of both worlds. 

As Palm has often stated before and Joe Fabris, Director Palm Wireless Marketing, reiterated in a News.com interview "The long-term goal is to get e-mail available on every Treo with every server".   In this respect, our Treo already supports several corporate wireless email solutions including Microsoft Exchange, IBM's Lotus and Domino, Good Technology's GoodLink software, Intellisync, Seven, and Visto in Europe.

Additionally, while this announcement is currently only tied to the Treo 650 Palm has clearly stated that it envisages all future devices to support BlackBerry Connect including its recently announced Treo running Windows Mobile since RIM is already working on a Windows Mobile client.

There’s no doubt that Palm and RIM’s partnership will benefit both companies.  Palm will now have the opportunity to introduce our Treo smartphone into the thousands of global organizations who had limited their wireless email infrastructure to only BlackBerry servers and by extension BlackBerry devices.  For its part, by licensing its software to competing hardware manufacturers such as Nokia, Siemens and now Palm, RIM is ensuring that its wireless email solution retains its leadership in an increasingly competitive marketplace.

Bottom line this is great news for all existing and prospective Treonauts and promises to increase the appeal of our Treo even further.

Palm and Research In Motion Bring BlackBerry Connect to the Treo 650 Smartphone [Palm Press Release]
Palm, RIM ink licensing deal [News.com]

Treonauts love the freedom of choice…