Opera and Palm, Inc. (Nasdaq: PALM) yesterday announced that the new Palm® Foleo mobile companion will use the Opera web browser to provide customers a user-friendly web experience. Based on Opera 9, Opera for the Palm Foleo offers intelligent navigation features and support for advanced Web 2.0 applications using Ajax (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML). Opera’s Software Developer Kit (SDK) proved to be a quick-to-market solution in tailoring a browser suitable for the cutting edge of mobile technology.

The Palm Foleo is the first computer designed to be a companion to a smartphone. With the press of one button, the mobile companion’s large screen displays wireless email from a smartphone paired via Bluetooth® technology.(1) A full-size keyboard makes editing email and attachments quick and easy, and the built-in web browser provides reliable wireless Internet access. (1) With Foleo’s instant on/off capability, light and small size, and 5-hour battery life, Palm expects the mobile companion to establish a new category of personal-computing products.

Opera for the Palm Foleo provides the latest in mobile technologies, as it is the first deployment of Opera 9 to a portable device. Opera users of any device are able to visit the same web addresses they already know from browsing the web on a PC. Using their smartphone’s radio or the Foleo’s built-in Wi-Fi radio, Foleo customers can open Opera and immediately begin to browse favorite websites with stylized controls.

“Opera is delighted to work with Palm to enable a great browsing experience on their new category-defining product, the Palm Foleo mobile companion,” said Scott Hedrick, executive vice president of marketing for Opera Software. “The fact that Palm was able to integrate Opera and give it their look and feel in only a few short months demonstrates the value and flexibility of the Opera SDK.”

By building the Foleo on an open Linux-based platform and publishing the tools developers might need, Palm hopes to establish a vibrant developer community to create new applications that extend the mobile companion’s built-in capabilities. Opera demonstrates the ease with which exciting technology and applications can be ported to the Foleo mobile companion.