A high-profile corporate partnerships

The dogfight in the handheld computing space entended to the halls of the Javits Center here today with a slew of corporate partnership announcements from Palm Inc. and the release of a new Web browser from Handspring Inc. While the two competitors battled for attention, it was Palm's CEO Carl Yankowski who stole the TECHXNY spotlight with a keynote address touting his company's B2B strategy and announcing deals with Panasonic, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and Extended Systems Inc. Yankowski unveiled a high-profile corporate partnerships with Panasonic aimed at accelerating consumer and enterprise acceptance of the Secure Digital (SD) memory and Input/Output (SDIO) card standards. He also revealed that Palm and accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers had struck a deal to market the company's handhelds to PwC clients. Yankowski said the two companies would develop and market solutions based on Palm branded handheld computers. Touting the importance of incorporating handheld technology into existing IT systems, Yankowski issues a call for enterprises to move swiftly to ensure return on investment and to empower mobile workforces. And, in a surprise move, Yankowski invited Extended Systems Inc. CEO Steve Simpson to join him onstage to announce a deal for Palm to resell Extended Systems' XTNDConnect Server Software as a Palm branded product.