BARCELONA, Spain—Japanese browser vendor Access Co. Ltd. gave details about what it plans to do with Palm OS vendor PalmSource Inc., which the company last year acquired for $324 million. The company said it would rebrand the Palm operating system as the Access Linux Platform (ALP), and plans to sell the platform to handset makers.
PalmSource had already planned to move the Palm OS to a Linux platform before Access acquired the company. In acquiring PalmSource, Access essentially put those plans into high gear.
“We believe that ALP combines best-in-class open source Linux components with proven mobile technologies developed by PalmSource and Access’ Linux expertise,” said Toru Arakawa, Access’ president and chief executive officer. “As a commercial-grade, flexible, open, robust and standards-based mobile Linux based platform, ALP is designed to provide handset manufacturers with faster time-to-market while supporting the goal of operators to offer revenue-generating services, applications and content.”
However, in announcing the new Linux-based platform, Access did not announce any new handset licensees. Before being acquired, PalmSource had suffered from flagging interest in the Palm OS and a dwindling number of licensees.
With its new Linux platform, Access faces a range of competitors from Symbian to Microsoft Corp.<p
