StyleTap Inc. has announced plans to release a version of its Palm OS emulator for the iPhone and the iPod touch, which will allow over 20,000 currently-available mobile applications to run on these devices.

This announcement is good news for long-time Palm OS users who are considering jumping ship to an Apple handheld or smartphone.

The company has been investigating the idea of a Palm OS emulator for some time, and in February released a video showing an experimental prototype of StyleTap CrossPlatform running existing Palm OS applications on an iPod touch.

"The iPhone is one of the hottest new mobile devices out there," said Gregory Sokoloff, CEO of StyleTap, "and the response to our video has convinced us that many, many consumers, and companies, will eagerly jump at the change to buy iPhone devices if they can continue to run their must-have applications."

Further information about StyleTap CrossPlatform for iPhone, including how it will be marketed and sold, will be revealed in early July.

Palm OS Everywhere

SyleTap's upcoming software will allow iPhone and iPod touch users to run Palm OS applications, and there is already a version of StyleTap for Windows Mobile devices. In addition, the company is working on a version for Symbian-based smartphones.

StyleTap's announcement comes on the heels of Access' release of a new beta of its Palm OS virtual machine for Nokia's Internet Tablets.