Access Systems Americas
| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Software development |
| Predecessor | PalmSource |
| Founded | January 2002 |
| Founder | Palm, Inc. |
| Fate | Acquired by ACCESS in 2005; renamed ACCESS Systems Americas, Inc. in 2006 |
| Headquarters | United States |
Area served | Worldwide |
| Products | Palm OS, Access Linux Platform, BeOS |
| Parent | ACCESS |
ACCESS Systems Americas, Inc. (previously known as PalmSource) operates as a subsidiary of ACCESS, responsible for the development of the Palm OS PDA operating system and its successor, the Access Linux Platform, along with BeOS. PalmSource originated as a spin-off from Palm Computing, Inc..
Since its introduction in 1996, Palm OS has been installed on over 38 million units produced by manufacturers such as Palm, Inc., Samsung, IBM, Aceeca, AlphaSmart, Fossil, Inc., Garmin, Group Sense PDA (Xplore), Kyocera, PiTech, Sony, and Symbol. In addition to operating system development, PalmSource also provides software solutions for Palm OS; by December 2005, PalmGear featured a catalog of 28,769 software titles spanning various categories. Distribution channels for these applications include platforms like CNET, PalmSource itself, Handango, and Tucows.
In August 2001, PalmSource expanded its portfolio by acquiring BeOS from Be Inc..
History
Palm, Inc. initiated the creation of a fully owned subsidiary dedicated to the development and licensing of Palm OS in January 2002, which was officially named PalmSource in February. By October 2003, PalmSource became an independent entity through a spin-off while Palm rebranded as palmOne. Both companies jointly established a holding entity to manage the Palm trademark.
In January 2004, PalmSource revealed plans for Palm OS Cobalt as the next-generation platform succeeding the classic Palm OS; however, it did not secure support from hardware licensees. Later that year in December, PalmSource acquired China MobileSoft to enhance its mobile Linux expertise and announced intentions to port Palm OS to the Linux environment.
In May 2005, palmOne acquired PalmSource’s stake in the Palm trademark for US$30 million and subsequently renamed itself Palm, Inc. two months afterward. Under this deal, palmOne granted limited rights to the Palm trademarks back to PalmSource and its licensees for a transitional period of four years. Later in 2005, ACCESS—a company specializing in mobile and embedded web browser technologies such as NetFront—completed the acquisition of PalmSource for US$324 million.
By October 2006, PalmSource declared it would adopt the ACCESS name to align more closely with its parent organization.