PalmSource Inc says it is talking with Chinese mobile phone maker Ningbo Bird and an arm of TCL about licensing its Palm operating software for handheld devices.

However, the company's President and Chief Executive David Nagel declined to say anything before an agreement was reached.

Ningbo Bird is China's largest homegrown maker of cellphones, while the unit of TCL Corp has joined forces with Alcatel to create a company that aspires to be among the world's top five mobile phone makers within a few years.

PalmSource is striving to add customers in China, even as its number two client, Sony Corp, announced on Tuesday it would stop selling new handheld personal digital assistants or PDAs based on the software outside Japan this year.

According to Nagel, Lenovo Group and Founder Group, China's top two computer makers; have already signed up as PalmSource licensees.

(CRI June 3, 2004)