HP's Bluestone bags HK partners

Almost a year after acquiring middleware company Bluestone, Hewlett-Packard (HP) has announced seven new development partners for Bluestone products in Hong Kong.

The Hong Kong companies - AsiaiTech, Arcotect, ecVision, Datacraft i-Commerce, Path Technology, Systek and SUNeVision Super-Office - have agreed to use Bluestone's application server and tools to develop Internet applications for their customers.

Kris Chan, HP Hong Kong's director of marketing, said HP would provide support, training and certification.

Bluestone is part of HP's effort to support open-standard software written with non-proprietary languages such as Java and XML.

Some in the industry also have seen it as part of HP's attempts to build up the software side of its business.

HP, one of the world's leading personal-computer manufacturers, recently agreed to merge with rival Compaq in a multi-billion-dollar deal.