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Palm phones "double user revenues" - Albert Chu

Palmsource may not be the headline-grabber in the battle between Microsoft and Symbian for dominance in the phone OS market. On the other hand, it may just get the attention of the network operators, after producing hard data from the Handspring Treo showing that users actually enable data on these handsets.

Sprint has released data showing that the typical dataphone user doesn't enable data - the figure is around 7%, it says. And Treo, maker of a combined PDA and handset, has found that its Palm platform has turned that figure upside down, with 97% of users enabling data straight away.

The result is that Albert Chu, in Cannes to meet the challenge of the Smartphone, he should get attention. He had to hire a boat for PalmSource to address phone builders and carriers; but they seem to be beating a path to his berth.

"The figures for the last few months show us easily holding onto our leadership position," he summarised. "In the smartphone space, our market data shows we are maintaining number one position. The same in the PDA business where, in the US, we have 80% of market in handhelds; in smartphone space we have 75% of the US market, and 29.3% of the global business."

The other piece of data which will certainly get all the smartphone fans cheering, is that Treo users are not just enabling, but using data. "The average monthly phone bill for Treo customers, is 90% greater than the average Sprint customer for phones," reported Chu today.