Taipei, Aug. 26, 2008 (CENS)--Palm Inc., a global vendor of handsets under own brand, has placed its contract order for the newest Treo Pro series 3.5G phones with Taiwan`s High Tech Computer Corp. (HTC), a handsets supplier, according to company sources.

In fact, Palm has worked with HTC on an ODM (original design manufacturing) basis for a long time, with the latter having developed and supplied the first Treo 700 series PDA (personal digital assistant) phone to the former. The cooperation was once suspended for a while, as HTC actively ventured into sales of own-brand handsets. Hiwever, to launch new 3G phones in the global market, Palm resolved to resume the partnership with HTC by releasing an ODM contract order to the Taiwanese firm.

Palm recently debuted its newest Treo Pro series 3.5G phone, which is installed with Microsoft Corp.`s embedded operating system and built with GPS (global positioning system) and WiFi wireless network functions and will be sold in Europe via telecom companies, such as Vodafone and O2. In the U.S. market, the brand plans to promote the new phone through local distributors, at a high unit price of US$549.

Furthermore, Palm is planning to launch CDMA (code division multiple access) version of Treo Pro series phone in the future for CDMA telecom service providers, like Verizon, Wireless and Sprint. The phone will also be supplied by HTC.

Noteworthy is that HTC is expected to see its gross profit rate drop to around 35% in the third quarter of this year, due mainly to the most recent ODM contract orders from Palm, according to the company.

(by Steve Chuang)