Palm makes Apple-style pact with the enemy

Handheld pioneer Palm has followed Apple and made a pact with a company many of its users see as Satan.

But while Apple decided to use Intel processors, Palm is set to launch a Treo handheld using Microsoft’s Windows Mobile software next year.

Palm produced the first successful pen-input handheld but it was slow to catch on to wireless links. Its spun-off software arm Palmsoft was sold to a Japanese company after announcing that it was switching to Linux.

The telephony-enabled Treo has been a success and Palm feels that the use of Windows will open new corporate markets.

Meanwhile Apple’s first foray into telephony, the Itunes-enabled Motorola Rokr has had a less-than-ecstatic reception outclassed, at least on storage capacity, by other mp3 phones even before its release.

Apple ran into trouble over its new Ipod Nano, with complaints of breakages and scratched screens. Chief executive Steve Jobs described the elegant little device as ‘impossibly small’ after slipping it in his pocket, creating a little mystery about his trousers. ­