Late last year, Research In Motion (RIM) and PalmSource announced plans to enable Palm-based devices to connect to RIM's mobile email and data solutions as if they were RIM's own BlackBerry handhelds.

Today, the two companies announced the completion of their distribution agreement to make RIM's BlackBerry Connect available to Palm OS licensees. PalmSource President and CEO David Nagel demonstrated BlackBerry Connect for Palm OS during his keynote presentation today at the Wireless Enterprise Symposium.

At its Developers Conference back in February, PalmSource officials said the RIM deal would help it penetrate the enterprise market. For RIM , the partnership helps extend its reach to more kinds of devices, while letting PalmSource leverage RIM's installed base of enterprise customers that already have its BlackBerry server installed behind the firewall.

"Wireless data connectivity is fundamental to the continuing growth of mobile devices and services and a strong contributor to increased ROI in the enterprise;" said Kevin Burden, program manager of IDC's Mobile Devices research service. "Combined with the thousands of Palm OS applications, BlackBerry Connect on Palm OS will strengthen the presence of Palm Powered mobile devices in the enterprise and further solidify the Palm OS platform's value to this market."

So with BlackBerry Connect for Palm OS now a reality, PalmSource licensees will soon be able to extend email and corporate data connectivity via BlackBerry Enterprise Server and BlackBerry Web Client, as well as global address list look-up and IT policy support to their PDAs and smartphones

According to PalmSource's Nagel, "BlackBerry Connect broadens the choice of wireless messaging solutions for our Palm OS licensees to create mobile products that better meet the demands of today's mobile professionals."

While his counterpart at RIM, President and Co-CEO Mike Lazaridis, said "BlackBerry Connect on Palm Powered smart mobile devices will broaden the reach of our wireless platform into new markets and strengthen our presence in the Palm OS community."

PalmSource expects to make the Palm OS Mail Client that supports BlackBerry Connect available to Palm OS licensees in the second half of this year.

The BlackBerry Standard?

In April , RIM inked an agreement with Motorola, the number two mobile phone vendor, to enable specific handsets to connect to BlackBerry services, including support for both BlackBerry Enterprise Server and BlackBerry Web Client. The company signed a similar deal with the number one selling mobile phone company, Nokia, back in 2002.