IBM Cuts PDA Deal With Sharp

Linux-Based Zaurus will interface with IBM's enterprise software products.

IBM has entered a partnership with Sharp to develop a version of the Linux-based Zaurus handheld for corporate use, along with ways for Zaurus to integrate with IBM server products.

The Enterprise Edition Zaurus should appear by mid-2003, officials from both companies say. The deal involves building Zaurus support into IBM's Linux- and Java-based middleware products.

Supporting applications will include the Websphere Everyplace line, which allows companies to add mobile devices including PDAs to the list of clients that can access IBM enterprise applications. A Zaurus could act as a client to WebSphere Application Server, DB2 database, and software from IBM subsidiaries Tivoli and Lotus.

The Websphere Everywhere line already supports Pocket PC and Palm OS PDAs and some cell phones based on wireless markup language and Sync ML.

Aiming Upscale

Sharp has been eyeing the enterprise market ever since it unveiled its first Linux-based PDA, the Zaurus SL-5000D, at the JavaOne conference in the United States in mid-2001. However, it has been hampered by a lack of experience in the enterprise market. Early on, the company turned to open-source developers. Sharp this week said 550 Zaurus-specific applications have been produced.

Sharp began selling the Zaurus overseas last April and is targeting international sales of 75,000 units in its first year, according to Hiroshi Uno, general manager at Sharp's Mobile Systems Division.

Sharp expanded its line only this week, with the new Zaurus B500 and C700. The B500 is an update on a previous model, while the C700 is a top-of-the-range model that Sharp said it targeted at business users on the move--the same audience being targeted under the deal with IBM. To underline this, the company demonstrated the PDA being used with a projector to deliver a Power Point presentation.

The device has a landscape format 3.7-inch LCD with 640-by-480-pixel resolution, which is four times higher than most competing PDAs. The screen can also be swiveled through 180 degrees and folded down to cover the keyboard and allow the Zaurus to be used like a conventional PDA with the screen in portrait format. The PDA is based on an Intel XScale processor running at 400 MHz and includes 64MB of flash memory, 32MB of SDRAM and slots for SD and Compact Flash cards.