Blackberry Connect Comes to Treo 650
Palm has announced the first availability of Blackberry Connect for the Treo 650. The service is currently available
in Singapore through wireless provider SingTel.
With BlackBerry Connect, SingTel customers now have a wider choice of devices that support the robust and secure BlackBerry services and a wider choice of wireless email solutions that support the feature-rich Treo 650.
Vicki Brady, SingTel’s vice president of Consumer Marketing, said, “SingTel is proud to be the first operator in the world to bring the Palm Treo 650 smartphone with BlackBerry Connect to its customers.
“As mobile email has become an integral part of the business world today, we believe that the compact and feature-rich Treo 650 with BlackBerry Connect will appeal to many of our corporate customers. With SingTel’s unparalleled local mobile and international roaming coverage, they can access email on their handsets while on the go,” she added.
BlackBerry Connect for the Treo 650 smartphone enables users to benefit from many popular features of the BlackBerry “push”-based architecture via BlackBerry Enterprise Server(TM). For corporate customers, BlackBerry Enterprise Server software tightly integrates with Microsoft(R) Exchange and IBM Lotus(R) Domino(TM) and works with existing enterprise systems to enable secure, push-based wireless access to email and other corporate data.
BlackBerry Connect for the Treo 650 smartphone supports the following features:
- “Push” Corporate Email delivers messages automatically — and wirelessly — to the Treo 650 smartphone’s VersaMail(R) inbox. Changes to the inbox, including read/unread status and deletion, are automatically synchronized between the user’s PC and the Treo 650.
- Wireless Calendar Synchronization keeps the Treo 650 smartphone’s built-in Calendar up to date remotely, allowing users to receive, accept or decline meeting requests on the go.
- Attachment Viewing lets users view Excel, Word, PowerPoint and PDF documents while on the road.
- Remote Address Lookup (RAL) allows users to search their corporate directory wirelessly for email addresses without the need to download every name to the Treo 650.
- Extends the benefits of BlackBerry Enterprise Server to the Treo 650, including centralized device management; IT policies, such as over-the-air device disablement and password device lock; and Triple DES encryption, supporting end-to-end security.
“Companies in our region that have deployed BlackBerry Enterprise Server or are planning to do so now have strong reasons to consider the Treo 650, already one of the most compelling mobile-computing devices available today for enterprise users,” said Paul Blinkhorn, vice president for Palm Asia Pacific. “Today’s launch underscores Palm’s commitment to providing a broad range of world-class, enterprise-strength mobile-computing solutions, and offers Treo 650 customers greater choice and flexibility to fulfill their mobile email needs.”
“Millions of mobile professionals around the world have recognized the unique security, manageability, efficiency and reliability of the BlackBerry architecture,” said Norm Lo, vice president for Asia Pacific at RIM. “The Treo 650 with BlackBerry Connect delivers the power of the BlackBerry architecture with the familiar VersaMail client software that Palm users enjoy today, expanding the overall market opportunity for SingTel, Palm and RIM.”
No official word yet from Palm on the US release of Blackberry Connect.
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