Palm names EMEA handheld director

Palm has named Philippe Nahman as director for handheld and mobile manager activities in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). Previously, the 40-year-old executive was a regional director for the handheld manufacturer in France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. He'll now coordinate the company's sales of Treo smart phone, LifeDrive, Tungsten and Zire products.

Despite success with its Treo, the company is currently lagging behind BlackBerry wireless e-mail maker Research In Motion. Palm shipped 642,000 units last quarter compared to 840,000 BlackBerry devices, according to a report out this week by Gartner. Overall, the Western European PDA market grew 94 percent to 1.3 million units in the second quarter of 2005. The region accounted for 37 percent of worldwide shipments, up from 25 percent a year ago.