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A deal between the two rivals for the handheld device market has replaced their ongoing battle for customers.

BlackBerry push email, now coming to a Palm near you. Well, not until early 2006; that's when Palm's Treo 650 smartphone will be equipped to receive BlackBerry wireless email. The two companies have been working together for about a year on the project, Reuters reported.

Palm will license the BlackBerry Connect software as part of the agreement. Handset giant Nokia licenses BlackBerry Connect for a few of its devices. RIM has sought to expand its business through Connect, and has already gained "several tens of thousands" of subscribers.

Palm has found new life with its Treo smartphones. The company has offered several version of its PDAs over the past few years, but they have never gained the widespread acceptance that cellphones have.

In September, Palm and Microsoft announced a Palm smartphone will be equipped with Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 as its operating system instead of the PalmOS. The Treo 700 is expected to directly compete with RIM's BlackBerry devices.

David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. Email him here.