Just because Microsoft's mobile division wants to bury palmOne and the Palm platform, it doesn't mean other sections of the software giant aren't open to partnering with the handheld company.

Take this week's announcement that palmOne will license technology from Microsoft to let its PDAs and smartphones work with Exchange. By licensing Microsoft's ActiveSync protocol for its VersaMail e-mail client, palmOne will be able to deliver direct, secure, wireless synchronization between Exchange Server 2003 and—for starters—future Treo smartphones (the first of which, the Treo 650, is expected to be announced later this month.)

This deal furthers palmOne's goal of becoming a competitive rival to Research In Motion (RIM) and its BlackBerry platform in mobile messaging—especially for corporations. According to palmOne President Ed Colligan, "The key to offering the premier mobile-email-access device (Treo) is our open-platform approach, resulting in a full spectrum of choices for individuals to CIOs at the largest enterprises."

Although the new palmOne solution won't be push-based like BlackBerry, neither does it require middleware or third-party servers, such as the BlackBerry Enterprise Server, to access Exchange. So end-users will be able to synchronize Exchange data (e-mail and calendar information) from their palmOne device out-of-the-box.

Other e-mail systems supported by palmOne include those offered by mobile operators, Good Technology's BlackBerry-like GoodLink, Extended Systems OneBridge and, of course, POP3 and IMAP4. palmOne's handhelds will eventually sync with the BlackBerry e-mail platform thanks to a pending deal between Palm OS developer PalmSource and RIM.

Mobile Phones & Exchange
A company called Synchronica has released a SyncML Gateway for Microsoft Exchange. This gateway provides over-the-air synchronization between Exchange Server and mobile phones from Nokia, Sony Ericsson, and Siemens.

(SyncML is an open industry specification for mobile data synchronization and device management, sponsored by companies such as Ericsson, IBM, Lotus, Matsushita, Motorola, Nokia, Openwave, Starfish Software, and Symbian.)

With the SyncML Gateway, mobile phone users can remotely synchronize their handsets to get access to corporate e-mail, calendar, contacts, and tasks. Because most mobile phones already ship with a SyncML client built in, synchronization works instantly and without additional software installation.

Synchronica offers two version of the SyncML Gateway: The corporate edition is installed behind the firewall onsite, while the operator version is deployed in the data center of a carrier wanting to offer Exchange synchronization as a value added service to business customers.