Networking giant 3 Com Corporation and Toshiba America Information Systems (TAIS) Inc will today announce a strategic alliance under which TAIS will actively market and bundle, 3Com PC cards and network interface cards to its notebook PC customers. As part of the OEM deal, 3Com will assist TAIS’s sales team to market the solution to Toshiba’s major account customers while TAIS will include the networking vendor’s connectivity products in its accessories guide, marketing materials and on its web site. Through the OEM relationship, Toshiba America becomes a participant in the 3Com Connected program which ensures that Toshiba notebooks equipped with 3Com Megahertz PC Cards have been pre-configured and tested for compatibility. In addition, the notebook PCs will also carry the 3Com Connected logo, the networking vendor’s equivalent of chip giant Intel’s Intel inside branding. The alliance is the latest step in a long- standing relationship between TAIS and 3Com in the mobile market. The two already sit alongside each other on the Mini PCI Roundtable, a group of leading mobile vendors that proposed a new standard for integrated communications in that market. TAIS is also a member of the Mobile Advisory Council, an advocacy group for mobile design requirements of which 3Com is a co-chair.
