Mobile device maker Palm is aiming for a breakthrough in China this year as it increases sales efforts through mainland service providers and distributors.
Palm, based in California's Silicon Valley, will make a US$25 million, six-month worldwide marketing campaign for its new generation of smart phones.
'The market for data-centric converged devices - or smart phones - is growing rapidly in China and the rest of the world,' said Paul Blinkhorn, vice-president for Asia-Pacific operations. 'In China, we launched the Treo 650 about a year ago through our general distributors as Palm's first foray in the smart phone market.'
He said the future for Palm's smart phone marketing would be increased use of service providers in each market. 'We are in dialogue with China Mobile and China Unicom,' he said.
Research firm International Data Corp forecasts that total volume shipments of data-centric converged devices in the mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan will reach 4.77 million units this year, up 188 per cent from 1.66 million last year.