Palm to invest €5m in Irish R&D

The US multinational that developed the Palm Pilot plans to invest an estimated €5 million in a research and development (R&D) facility in the Republic - its first such plant in Europe.

Palm Incorporated yesterday opened its European R&D centre in Swords in north Dublin. According to company chief executive Ed Colligan, the facility will initially employ 10-15 people. This figure will ultimately rise to 35.

The company did not reveal how much it intends investing in the facility, but The Irish Times understands that the figure is in the region of €5 million.

Palm was originally known for the Palm Pilot hand-held computer. In what has become an increasingly competitive market sector, it has branched into smart phones, devices that offer wireless voice and data communication.

The company's products provide e-mail, phone calls, messaging, music downloads and other services. It is one of the leading sellers of these products in the US.

Mr Colligan explained yesterday that the company decided to locate an R&D facility in Europe because the market here has different requirements to the US.

He said: "For us to be successful here, really successful, we think we need a local presence from an R&D perspective - both to drive the relationships with our carrier partners and to create more functional and useful products for the European community.

"That customer set is just different from the customer in the Americas. For example, SMS (text messaging) in the US was hardly even discovered a few years ago. Here it's one of the biggest applications of all in mobile communication.

"On the other hand mobile e-mail has been a big driver in the US - not so here," Mr Colligan explained.

State development agency IDA Ireland is supporting the project. The Minster for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Micheál Martin, formally opened the facility yesterday.

He said that Palm represented an important addition to the State's emerging wireless sector, which is a key target for the IDA. He added that it also fitted in with the agency's strategy of targeting R&D and knowledge-based industries.