Palm Inc. has announced that Michelin North Americas Inc. has purchased more than 500 Palm Tungsten T handhelds for its commercial fleet sales force.

Sales consultants from the commercial fleet sales force at Michelin are using Tungsten T handhelds to collect tire data at customer locations. Information such as tire wear, age and mileage is recorded, analyzed and reported to keep commercial customers abreast of tire performance.
By replacing paper-based inspections with handheld solutions, commercial tire dealers, Michelin and fleet service departments are able to receive more dependable feedback on tire performance, according to Palm. The electronic data can be centrally stored and shared within the Michelin extended enterprise. Research and development, sales and marketing divisions all can use the information.
With the Tungsten T's built-in Palm OS 5, high-resolution screen, one-touch voice memo and Texas Instruments OMAP1510 processor, data collection using Michelin's forms-based Tire Trax application is fast and efficient. After data capture, the handheld solution facilitates the data transportation to a data warehouse for analysis and reporting.
Weighing only 5.6 ounces, the Tungsten T slips into a shirt pocket and the handheld's durability and portability provides sales representatives with a convenient extension of their PCs, according to Palm.