Palm to expand hardware base

Nagel said Palm will announce new Palm OS 5.0 licences with several hardware vendors soon, but would not comment on whether they might include Apple, where he once headed up R&D, or Chinese PC maker Legend.

Legend is seen as a key doorway into the Chinese market.

However, Nagel said that some of the licensees had also signed licensing deals with Microsoft for the Pocket PC platform, as well as the Symbian operating system developed for mobile phones.

Nagel said Dell's low-priced entry to the PDA market will “haven an impact… mainly because of their distribution and sales [model]”.

“They will bring Microsoft PocketPC pricing closer to that of Palm, but even Dell can't close that gap completely," he said.