SHUNNING THE TWO largest handheld platforms, Palm and Pocket PC, IBM will announce Friday it has inked a deal with Sharp to create a new version of Sharp's Linux-based Zaurus handheld to be named the Enterprise Edition Zaurus.

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The agreement furthers the strategic direction of both companies, according to IBM officials, as it brings a handheld device into the IBM pervasive computing initiative and extends Sharp's efforts to create a Linux/Java platform to support back-end corporate applications.

However, one industry analyst said that eventually IBM will have to support other platforms.

"If they are serious about being a pervasive computing supplier, they will have to embrace Palm and Pocket PC on behalf of the customer by more than just reselling them through Global Services," said Gerry Purdy, principle analyst with MobileTrax, in Cupertino, Calif.

Three years ago IBM penned a deal with Palm to rebrand a Palm device as the IBM Workpad. However, after launching its first version IBM did not follow through as the handheld technology evolved.

IBM has no intention of going that route again, according to one IBM executive.

"IBM made a fundamental business change. We decided IBM's core business is not producing the physical device but providing the middleware and services that customers want to get access to applications, that is the core business," said Letina Connelly, director of Solutions for IBM, in Armonk, N.Y.

IBM most likely selected Sharp's Linux platform in order to provide solutions that are not tied to other people's operating system or community, according to Purdy.

"It makes sense [for IBM] from a business, financial, and licensing standpoint," Purdy said. "But customers need RIMs, Pocket PCs, and Palms and pervasive computing must include all of the environments," he added.

The Enterprise edition of the Zaurus will support speech recognition and multimodal applications.

The way IBM sees it, having a Java-based handheld with a Linux OS ties together devices with the enterprise infrastructure, according to Rodney Adkins, general manager at IBM's Pervasive Computing Division, in Armonk.

The new handheld will be supported by WebSphere Studio tools, WebSphere Everyplace Connection Manager, and WebSphere Everyplace Access.