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Vendors in numerous industries eye the burgeoning Chinese market with desire. Today, Palm, Inc. made a significant foray into the most populous country and fastest growing economy on earth with the launch - at long last - of its Treo 650 smartphone in China.

In partnership with Qiao Xing Universal Telephone subsidiary CEC Telecom (CECT), Palm rolled out a GSM/GPRS/EDGE quad-band localized Chinese-language edition of the award-winning smartphone to what the companies call key retailers in the mainland.

Back in July, shortly after it changed its name back to Palm from palmOne, the company released its first Chinese language Treo 650 in Chinese province of Hong Kong. Consumers could get the smartphone through SmarTone-Vodafone, SUNDAY, CSL and 3 outlets, plus a number of chain and retail shops throughout the China province.

Palm Asia Pacific VP Paul Blinkhorn said at the time of the Hong Kong Treo 650 launch, "The Chinese-language Treo 650 allows Chinese-speaking users the ability to utilize the Treo 650's leading-edge features in their native tongue, like Web surfing, SMS messaging, access to personal and corporate emails via VersaMail, and editing their office documents."

The American handheld pioneer views CECT as an excellent fit for its China strategy. Palm's newly appointed senior vice president for worldwide sales John Hartnett says the company is "thrilled to collaborate with CECT to help reach the huge market potential in China and redefine the smartphone experience there."

China's appetite for converged devices like smartphones is growing. IDC reports that close to close to 7 million of these gadgets will be shipped by 2009, representing a compounded annual growth rate of 28 percent.

To build awareness for the Treo, China is the first market in the Asia Pacific region where Palm is launching what it calls the "It's Time for Treo" campaign, which is positioned to address business professionals in the country. The integrated marketing campaign will have outdoor, airport and print advertising, in-store merchandising, and online interactive contests to support the Treo 650.

Palm's chief platform provider PalmSource, recently acquired by Japan's ACCESS has worked closely with Chinese vendors for over a year now. Particularly since the acquisition of China Mobile Soft Limited (CMS) for its Linux-based phone platform that PalmSource plans to use to create a Linux version of the Palm platform.

Although Palm's flagship smartphone has struggled in some markets, the U.S. has not been one of them. In fact, the Treo is the bestselling smartphone in North America. For example, Canalys Research reports Treo shipments in the U.S substantially outpaced total converged device growth in the third quarter of this year.

The analyst firm estimates that Treo unit shipments grew 77 percent in last quarter compared with the same period in 2004. This compares to overall U.S. marketplace growth for converged devices of 40 percent and was more than twice that of Palm's nearest competitor.

Many expect Palm's first Windows Mobile Treo, due early next year, can only have a positive effect on these numbers, especially in the corporate market.