Studio Press

Optus, Palm and Research In Motion (RIM) today announced the availability of BlackBerry Connect for the Palm Treo 650 smartphone on the Optus network in Australia. BlackBerry Connect enables new and existing Treo 650 users to benefit from many popular features of the “push”-based BlackBerry architecture via BlackBerry Enterprise Server.

With BlackBerry Connect, Optus customers have a greater choice of mobile devices that are supported by the robust and secure capabilities of BlackBerry services and a wider choice ofwireless email solutions on the feature-rich Palm Treo 650 smartphone.

Paul Kitchin, marketing director, Optus Business, said, “The Treo 650 has become an important part of Optus’ enterprise mobile data strategy. And now, with the addition of BlackBerry Connect, the Treo 650 will appeal to an even greater number of our corporate customers.”

“The Treo 650 smartphone provides Optus customers with a way to simplify their business and personal lives with the increased mobility offered by an all-in-one device, and with BlackBerry Connect they also have greater flexibility in their choice of enterprise messaging platforms,” said John Hartnett, senior vice president of worldwide sales and customer relations for Palm. “Expanding our geographic reach is one of Palm’s key objectives, and we continue to meet users’ mobile needs with a broad range of world-class, enterprise-strength mobile-computing solutions.”

Norm Lo, vice president for Asia Pacific at RIM, said, “Millions of corporate and government users around the world already rely on the BlackBerry architecture and infrastructure to remain connected to communications and information while on the go. We are now very pleased to be working with Optus and Palm to launch BlackBerry Connect on the Treo 650 and expand the market opportunity for BlackBerry in Australia.”

BlackBerry Connect for the Treo 650 smartphone supports the following features:

• “Push” Corporate Email delivers messages automatically - and wirelessly - to the Treo 650 smartphone’s VersaMail inbox. Changes to the inbox, including read/unread status and deletion, can be automatically synchronized between the user’s email account and the Treo 650. • Wireless Calendar Synchronization keeps the Treo 650 smartphone’s built-in Calendar up to date remotely, allowing users to receive, accept or decline meeting requests on the go. • Attachment Viewing lets users view Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and PDF documents while on the road. • Remote Address Lookup (RAL) allows users to search their corporate directory wirelessly for email addresses without the need to download every name to the Treo 650. • Enables centralized device management, including support for IT policies such as over-the-air device disablement and password device lock, as well as end-to-end security with Triple DES encryption. -By Jonathan Cheah