PalmOne has announced that it has licensed Microsoft's Exchange Server ActiveSync for its Treo line of communicators. That will allow supported devices to synchronize their PIM and e-mail data from a supported Treo handheld to a Microsoft Exchange server, no middleware required.

The licensing of Exchange ActiveSync is part of PalmOne's push to become a one-stop-shop for messaging and synchronization. Local synchronization has always been the Palm OS's claim to fame, an area where it is still difficult to challenge, but for wireless sync and messaging it is up against incumbent Research In Motion (RIM) and its BlackBerry line.

Supported devices, none of which have been announced but an announcement is expected in the coming weeks, will offer out-of-the-box synchronization with Microsoft Exchange 2003 servers by means of a revised version of PalmOne's e-mail client, VersaMail. No desktop proxy or dedicated server, such as with RIM's offerings, will be necessary. On the other hand, it will not offer push-notification of e-mail the way the BlackBerry does.

The addition of Exchange synchronization to VersaMail joins the already wide-array of supported e-mail systems PalmOne already supports.
Those include standard POP3 and IMAP4 servers, carrier-specific e-mail systems such as Sprint's Business Connection or Verizon's VZEmail, as well as corporate-targeted offerings GoodLink from Good Technology (very similar to the RIM BlackBerry offering) and OneBridge from Extended Systems.

Source: InfoSync World