Oracle aims software at handhelds

Oracle's got the sales and marketing world in its hands--literally.

The Redwood Shores, California-based software firm announced today a new version of its sales and marketing software designed for handheld Palm computing devices.

For the initial release of the product, sales representatives will be able to manage their accounts, contacts, opportunities, and activities between the mobile sales and marketing software on their laptop or PC and 3Com's Palm devices such as PalmPilot and Palm III, or others like Symbol Technologies devices and the IBM WorkPad PC companion.

Oracle is using Puma Technology's Intellisync software to link the handheld devices with the sales and marketing software on a PC or laptop. Puma's system synchronizes data on the two devices.

Oracle is planning to add with the next release of the software, native field sales applications for the Palm devices and to develop a direct link to enterprise sales compensation and service information. Future releases will also support other handheld devices such as Microsoft's Windows CE.

The initial release is available now. The next release is scheduled to be out by the end of the year. No pricing was released.