Microsoft's Direct Push coming to Palm Treo phones

Sunnyvale (CA) - Treo smartphones, one of the major alternatives to the Blackberry line of phones, are about to get a bit of a Blackberry facelift, as Palm today announced that it is adding direct push e-mail technology to its devices.

Direct push, which lets users connect more quickly send e-mail and allows automatic wireless updates of messaging, contact, and calendar info, has become the signature feature for Blackberry smartphones ; today’s announcement marks the first time a similar service will be available on a Palm device.

"Extending Microsoft’s Direct Push Technology to the Palm OS based line of Treo smartphones gives business customers a powerful new choice for wireless email, security and manageability," said Palm’s director of wireless services, Joe Fabris, in a prepared statement.

The addition of Microsoft’s proprietary mobile technology is not new for Palm. The Treo devices already work with ActiveSync, a PC application that allows data transfer between the mobile device and the computer.

Wireless e-mail is becoming increasingly important, for both business users and general consumers. According to Palm’s press release, 90% of "professionals" will own a phone or PDA capable of sending e-mail, and that mobile push e-mail will be the dominant technology behind it.