April 26, 2001 - @Hand and AppForge Join Forces To Deliver Mission-Critical Applications in Visual Basic For Palm OS Devices

Partnership Enables Handheld Devices to Move Beyond Personal Information Management to Higher ROI Applications and Functionality


AUSTIN, TX ? April 11, 2001 ? @hand Corporation, the pioneer in mission-critical mobile software solutions for the enterprise, and AppForge?, Inc., the only company that allows Microsoft Visual Basic® programmers to create applications for the Palm OS®, today announced a partnership to enable businesses and third-party software vendors to develop and deploy mission-critical Visual Basic solutions on Palm OS devices.

The combined product offering will enable businesses and software vendors to quickly and easily deliver mobile workforce solutions whether users are connected or disconnected from the network. This new offering will fully integrate with enterprise-wide information systems in a secure and reliable manner.

"@hand and AppForge are first to announce a complete solution enabling the army of Visual Basic developers to deliver mission-critical applications on a Palm OS device," stated Marc Lurie, CEO of @hand corporation. "@hand offers the industry's first standards-based platform with the enterprise-wide integration and fully-functional disconnected capabilities required by mission-critical mobile workers, such as those found in large transportation companies and utilities."

The integrated offering from @hand and AppForge will allow companies to streamline application initiatives by leveraging Visual Basic developer skills across an array of Windows CE, Pocket PC and Palm OS devices. Rather than recruiting developers with skills specific to a single platform, businesses will be able to accelerate their development schedules by relying on the existing community of 3 million Visual Basic developers.

"Many of the 15,000 developers using AppForge are building applications to drive greater productivity and profits for leading corporations," said Doug Armstrong, CEO of AppForge, Inc. "Our relationship with @hand addresses the challenges of enabling these applications to operate while disconnected and to integrate with existing ERP, supply chain and CRM systems, as well as the many other web-client / server- and mainframe-based applications found in Fortune 1000 enterprises."

@hand will integrate into its core technology the upcoming version of AppForge's Professional Edition development platform, due for release later in 2001. The two software companies plan to continue working together to support the needs of Visual Basic developers deploying applications to Palm OS devices in large-scale, mission-critical enterprise environments.

About @hand Corporation
@hand, a pioneer in mission-critical mobile software solutions, enables the fast, efficient deployment of wireless applications to businesses that depend on their field organizations for competitive advantage. @hands allows companies to increase productivity and garner significant financial gains by extending complex business processes to mobile workforces through rapid back-end integration. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, @hand is privately-held with venture financing by Nokia Venture Partners, Oak Investment Partners, Austin Ventures and Broadview.

About AppForge, Inc.
Established in 1999, AppForge, Inc. is the first and only company to enable Microsoft Visual Basic programmers to easily and quickly create sophisticated applications for handheld, mobile and embedded devices. The company's founding team has developed strategically important embedded software and hardware solutions for multi-national companies in the wireless space for more than 16 years. For more information on AppForge, visit the company's Web site at www.appforge.com.

For More Information: www.appforge.com