Treo E-Mail Options to Grow

Handspring Inc. is keeping its bases covered when it comes to e-mail support for its Treo 600 device, which is due in the fall.

The Mountain View, Calif., company last week unveiled several remote access data options for the Treo 600, which combines a phone and PalmSource Inc.s Palm OS-based PDA with several wireless data features.

The e-mail options target enterprise customers, individual users and carrier partners. These include products from Seven Networks Inc., Visto Corp. and Good Technology Inc., with options from several other companies in the pipeline.

"You have to work with the carriers and the middleware companies to provide a range of solutions," said Brian Jaquet, a spokesman for Handspring.

Carrier-hosted software from Seven, of Redwood City, Calif., will be the default e-mail client on all Treo 600 devices sold by Sprint PCS Group. The client, which is currently available on older Treo devices, offers wireless access to Microsoft Corp.s Exchange and IBMs Lotus Software divisions Domino, as well as IMAP and Post Office Protocol e-mail.

Visto, of Redwood Shores, Calif., is adding support for the Treo 600 to the Visto Mobile Access Solution. Visto offers two versions of its software: Server Edition provides remote access to the corporate server without the need for a desktop computer, while Desktop Solution provides individual access to corporate desktop data.

Good will support the Treo 600 on the latest version of its enterprise messaging server, GoodLink 2.0, which the Sunnyvale, Calif., company announced last week.

Extended Systems Inc., iAnywhere Solutions Inc., Infowave Software Inc. and Snapperfish Ltd. Corp. also plan to support the Treo 600.

Potential customers said they welcome the prospective options for the Treo 600, provided they work. "In a perfect world, we would like to manage one device that performs lots of functions," said Nicole Ethridge, an IS assistant at Boston Properties Inc., in Boston.