Michele Pelino’s recent blog, “HP’s Acquisition Of Palm Is Not A Match Made In Heaven,” concludes as the title suggests that the success of the acquisition remains a wait-and-see proposition and it, in fact, may not pay off.  As Michele notes,

Forrester’s survey of over 1,000 IT decision makers in North American and European enterprises, only 12% of firms officially support or manage Palm devices. In comparison, 70% of enterprises support BlackBerry smartphones, and 29% support Apple iPhones. Android devices, the newest entrants in the mobile OS wars, have strong momentum and are officially supported by 13% of firms.

Well, that got me wondering how Palm had fared in emerging markets.  We know that device preferences are different globally.  So, I thought, maybe there are some Palm fans outside of North America and Europe.  I checked Forrester’s Global Technology Adoption data from last summer (new survey expected back from the field very soon) in which we surveyed 1,412 IT executives and technology decision-makers across 15 countries.  Here is what I found out about PalmOS support across enterprises in a few of the countries:

These less-than-inspiring numbers contrast with a 48% adoption of BlackBerry devices.  Windows Mobile, supported by HP's mobile devices, enjoys 36% adoption rate globally, with 44% adoption in Brazil and 42% in Mexico -- the highest for Windows Mobile in our survey.  Next up are the newer kids on the block with 12% adoption for Apple iPhones and 5% for the newest Google Android-based devices across all countries in our global survey. 

So, not much traction for Palm in emerging markets.  HP didn’t pick up a new entry point into the growing mobility markets in Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America – at least not with the Palm acquisition.