Cingular Offers BlackBerry Connect for Palm

Cingular Wireless has begun providing the BlackBerry Connect service to customers using Palms Treo 650 as of Aug. 30.

The new service, which is designed for corporate customers with BlackBerry Enterprise Servers, uses a client available from Palm.

According to Chris Hall, Cingulars director of product marketing for BlackBerry devices, the cost of the client varies according to how long the customer has had the Treo.

However he said that Cingulars unlimited service for BlackBerry Connect would cost $44.95 for customers also having voice service with Cingular. Customers without voice service would pay an additional $5 per month.

“We were the first to offer Blackberry Connect in the U.S., and the first to offer BlackBerry connect on the Palm platform in the U.S.,” Hall said.

Hall said that the new service from Cingular would be a solid benefit to its enterprise customers, adding that many enterprise users prefer the ease of use and flexibility of the Palm platform over the BlackBerry.

“It gives Palm customers an opportunity to not only use BlackBerry Connect, but to use the Palm applications out there today. Now you can combine those two to really find a whole host of solutions.”

Hall also said that Cingular has had a great deal of demand for BlackBerry Connect on Palm devices. Currently, Cingular offers the Treo 650 on its Web site for $199.99.

/zimages/4/28571.gifRIM to expand BlackBerry Connect service.Click hereto read more.

“I think that when you look at the easy-to-use interface of the Treo 650 and you also get push e-mail, and calendaring, you have the ability to respond quickly,” Hall said.

BlackBerry Connect operates using Cingulars EDGE wireless broadband network. It includes push e-mail, wireless calendar synchronization, attachment viewing, remote address lookup and it supports centralized device management.

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