While many Bluetooth companies have made small-stake announcements at the Bluetooth Congress in Monte Carlo, computing heavyweight Palm Inc. stepped up to the high-rollers tables to introduce its Palm Bluetooth Card, enabling Palm users to Bluetooth-enable the company’s personal digital assistants.
“People are waiting for somebody to take the lead in Bluetooth, and Palm intends to take the lead and drive this,” Michael Mace, chief competition officer for Palm, told the Associated Press.
Designed in conjunction with Toshiba, the postage stamp-sized card uses the Secure Digital Input/Output specification and is designed to slip into the SD/MultiMedia Card expansion slot on the company’s m500 and m505 handhelds, allowing secure local communications.
“This is only the beginning,” said John Cook, senior director of product marketing for Palm. “Much the way modems changed personal computers from isolated computing machines into pervasive communications tools, we believe Bluetooth will open a new era in interoperability among devices and collaboration among people.”
The Secure Digital Association noted the SD Memory Card technology does not require power to retain the information stored on it, has no moving parts to skip or break down, is electrostatic discharge resistant and can securely transfer data.
“It is a powerful indication of the potential of SD and the SDIO standard to drive mobility to new levels,” said Ray Creech, president of SDA.
The card is expected to be available by the end of the year for around $150. In addition, Palm said it will offer Bluetooth support for its 4.x operating system software by the end of the year, allowing licensees to incorporate Bluetooth into products or release add-on Bluetooth solutions for current Palm Powered devices.
