Handmark Inc. was an American developer and distributor of mobile content, based in

Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City, Missouri, abbreviated KC or KCMO, is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri by List of cities in Missouri, population and area. The city lies within Jackson County, Missouri, Jackson, Clay County, Missouri, Clay, and Pl ...

. The

company A company, abbreviated as co., is a Legal personality, legal entity representing an association of legal people, whether Natural person, natural, Juridical person, juridical or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members ...

was created in 2000 by the merger of Mobile Generation Software with Palmspring Software.

History

The company's original intention was to sell

software Software consists of computer programs that instruct the Execution (computing), execution of a computer. Software also includes design documents and specifications. The history of software is closely tied to the development of digital comput ...

and content for the Palm Operating System, and in 2001 handmark purchased the Palm-related MemoWare repository. The company's scope has since expanded to include

Windows Mobile Windows Mobile is a discontinued mobile operating system developed by Microsoft for smartphones and personal digital assistants (PDA). Designed to be the portable equivalent of the Windows desktop OS in the emerging Mobile device, mobile/port ...

Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...

, and other mobile

computing Computing is any goal-oriented activity requiring, benefiting from, or creating computer, computing machinery. It includes the study and experimentation of algorithmic processes, and the development of both computer hardware, hardware and softw ...

smartphone A smartphone is a mobile phone with advanced computing capabilities. It typically has a touchscreen interface, allowing users to access a wide range of applications and services, such as web browsing, email, and social media, as well as multi ...

and

mobile phone A mobile phone or cell phone is a portable telephone that allows users to make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while moving within a designated telephone service area, unlike fixed-location phones ( landline phones). This rad ...

platforms. The company's Pocket Express wireless service offers users access to news, reference and

infotainment Infotainment (a portmanteau of ''information'' and ''entertainment''), also called soft news as a way to distinguish it from serious journalism or hard news, is a type of media, usually television or online, that provides a combination of inform ...

content on

BlackBerry BlackBerry is a discontinued brand of handheld devices and related mobile services, originally developed and maintained by the Canadian company Research In Motion (RIM, later known as BlackBerry Limited) until 2016. The first BlackBerry device ...

Palm Treo The Palm Treo (stylized as Trēo) is a discontinued line of smartphones originally developed by Handspring, which was bought by Palm, Inc. They were then manufactured and maintained by Palm, Inc. Treos had a number of integrated features such ...

, Windows Mobile, and other

wireless Wireless communication (or just wireless, when the context allows) is the transfer of information (''telecommunication'') between two or more points without the use of an electrical conductor, optical fiber or other continuous guided transm ...

handhelds. In addition to the Pocket Express wireless service bundle, Handmark distributes a number of wireless entertainment titles including Warfare Incorporated ( RTS) (Palmsource Powered Up award winner). In January 2008 Handmark and Astraware announced a new business relationship in which Astraware became part of the Handmark group. Astraware was subsequently bought out by its management team in January 2010 and returned to being an independent game developer. In early 2009, Handmark acquired FreeRange Communications, makers of FreeRange WebReader, a free

RSS RSS ( RDF Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication) is a web feed that allows users and applications to access updates to websites in a standardized, computer-readable format. Subscribing to RSS feeds can allow a user to keep track of many ...

based feed reader and content service for mobile phones and PDAs. FreeRange Communications was founded by Jon Maroney and located in

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

, and the core technology was incorporated in other products including NewsGator Go!, Attensa Mobile and VersionTracker mobile products. Versions were produced for

phones,

and

Pocket PC A Pocket PC (P/PC, PPC) is a class of personal digital assistant (PDA) that runs the Windows Mobile operating system, which is based on Windows Embedded Compact, Windows CE/Windows Embedded Compact, and that has some of the abilities of modern ...

Palm OS Palm OS (also known as Garnet OS) is a discontinued mobile operating system initially developed by Palm, Inc., for personal digital assistants (PDAs) in 1996. Palm OS was designed for ease of use with a touchscreen-based graphical user interface. ...

devices,

Symbian Symbian is a discontinued mobile operating system (OS) and computing platform designed for smartphones. It was originally developed as a proprietary software OS for personal digital assistants in 1998 by the Symbian Ltd. consortium. Symbian OS ...

and

Java ME Java Platform, Micro Edition or Java ME is a computing platform for development and deployment of porting, portable code for embedded system, embedded and mobile devices (micro-controllers, sensors, gateways, mobile phones, personal digita ...

phones. The FreeRange reader was folded into Handmark's Pocket Express product line, while FreeRange's content service was branded the Handmark Mobile Publishing Platform. The Mobile Publishing Platform was subsequently spun off as a separate company Freerange 360, which in 2012 was renamed to Storycode. London-based commuter newspaper ''The Evening Standard'' launched a mobile app with Handmark in May 2010.

Acquisition

Handmark was acquired by Sprint on April 4, 2013 and became a subsidiary of Sprint.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Official site for Handmark
Software companies based in Missouri Companies based in Kansas City, Missouri Defunct software companies of the United States 2000 establishments in Missouri 2013 disestablishments in Missouri Software companies established in 2000 Software companies disestablished in 2013

History

Acquisition

See also

References

External links