IDC Places 3Com Number One in European Handheld Companion Market
LONDON — March 2, 1999 — International Data Corporation (IDC) has revealed that Palm Computing, Inc., a 3Com company (Nasdaq: COMS), has taken a 46.8 per cent share of the European handheld companion market, 17.1 per cent more than its nearest competitor, which holds 29.7 per cent.
IDC's findings are evidence of the dramatic success Palm Computing's connected organisers have enjoyed in European consumer and enterprise markets. Commenting on the figures, Alison McKenzie, research manager, IDC, said: "IDC projects that the Palm OS operating system will be the leading operating system in the handheld companion market worldwide for 1999."
"These figures are a clear validation of our philosophy: simple and fast access to information combined with an open platform and the sector's most compact product," said Neville Street, Palm Computing's general manager, international. "The Palm III organizer, launched in March of last year, set new standards for the industry, while the number of developers and applications for the platform has continued to grow at an unprecedented rate. 1999 promises to be even more exciting as we push the boundaries of mobile computing even further."
Sales of the Palm Computing family of connected organisers have proved equally strong elsewhere in the world. The company enjoys a 63 per cent world- wide market share (Dataquest, 1998) and accounts for 72 per cent of the U.S. personal companion market (IDC, 1999). The Palm Computing platform has an installed base of more than 2 million units, with over 12,000 software developers building applications for the platform.
About the Palm Computing Platform The Palm Computing platform is the foundation for the market-leading 3Com Palm III and PalmPilot connected organizers and other handheld computing products from Palm Computing's strategic partners, all leaders in their respective markets. These include IBM, which sells the IBM WorkPad PC Companion into the enterprise market, Franklin Covey, which supplies Palm devices for both the consumer and enterprise markets based on its popular time and life management planning concepts, and Symbol Technologies, which develops and markets the SPT 1500 device with bar code scanning capabilities used in retail, transportation, parcel and postal delivery, manufacturing and health care. SUN Microsystems has licensed Palm Computing's HotSync(R) technology, and HandSpring, Inc., has licensed the Palm Computing platform.
About 3Com Corp. With more than 200 million customers worldwide, 3Com Corporation connects more people to information in more ways than any other networking company. 3Com delivers innovative information access products and network system solutions to large, medium and small enterprises; carriers and network service providers; PC OEMs; and consumers.
For further information, visit 3Com's World Wide Web site at www.3com.com or the Palm Computing site at www.palm.com.
3Com and Palm Computing are registered trademarks and More connected., Palm OS, PalmPilot and Palm III are trademarks of 3Com Corporation or its subsidiaries. All other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated. None of the aforementioned products are manufactured by Pilot Corporation or Pilot Corporation of America, manufacturers and distributors of writing instruments.
CONTACT:
Jeremy Morgan, The Weber Group Europe
Tel: +44 (0)171 544 3176
e-mail: [email protected]