Handheld device maker Handspring, making a sales push into the corporate
arena, signed new announced sales, marketing and distribution pacts aimed at
promoting its products to enterprise and small to medium business customers.
The Mountain View, Calif.-based company said it is
responding to increased corporate interest in its Treo product line. Treo is
a compact
wireless communicator that integrates a mobile phone, wireless apps like
e-mail and Internet browsing and a 16MB Palm OS organizer all in one.
The company signed a deal with Fort
Collins, Colo.-based MarketLink to outsource some of its
sales efforts. Handspring said its MarketLink sales people will work with
distributors, value-added resellers, enterprise solutions partners and
carrier sales teams from Cingular and Sprint to sell Treo products. Financial
arrangements were not disclosed.
Handspring also expanded distribution in deals with Norcross, Ga.-based Global Wireless Data (GWD and CDW-G,
the government sales arm of Vernon Hills, Ill.-based CDW Computer Centers .
Again, financial arrangements were not disclosed.
Handspring said it expects GWD to be a key partner in deploying Treo
communicators to customers on the Sprint and VoiceStream networks.
“Handspring has always focused on vertical markets like healthcare, logistics
and education; now we are starting to see traction with businesses looking to
extend
existing enterprise solutions beyond the desktop environment,” said Kendall
Fargo, vice president of enterprise sales for Handspring.