PalmSource and QTech today announced QTech has licensed Palm OS to bring next generation Palm Powered smartphones and mobile solutions to the Indian and Latin American markets.

QTech is a technology company based in India focused on the development of smartphones and vertical solutions for the enterprise, government and high-end consumer markets. QTech aims to make Palm Powered smartphones a central part of its core business by partnering with leading mobile operators in India and Latin America.
 
"We are pleased to partner with PalmSource to leverage the power and flexibility of the Palm OS platform to bring next generation Palm Powered smartphones and applications to market," said Rao Machiraju, chairman and CEO of QTech. "In addition, tapping into the large and diverse community of Palm OS developers will enable our company to tailor mobile products with unique solutions aimed at its target markets."
 
"QTech is an ideal partner for PalmSource to broaden the reach of Palm Powered mobile products into India and Latin America," said David Nagel, president and CEO of PalmSource. "We believe QTech's technical expertise combined with PalmSource's commitment to create the best platform for mobile devices will foster growth of the Palm Powered Economy in these emerging markets."
 
"Consumer and Trade in India have been looking for additional products and applications in the tech featured mobile handset market which is poised for exponential growth, " said Pankaj Mohindroo, National President, Indian Cellular Association. "We are pleased to learn that PalmSource has licensed Palm OS to QTech to enter into India."
 
India is one of the fastest growing wireless markets with cellular connections predicted to grow to 56 million by the end of 2004, and reach 130 million by 2008. This growth can be attributed to the removal of regulatory hurdles for CDMA-based mobile services, the adoption of a unified telecom license to enable fully mobile services, the reduction in pricing of cellular services and the growing availability of a wide range of handsets at different price points. Latin American mobile markets are also growing very rapidly, with a forecast of 160 million subscribers by 2005.