Handspring, the No 2 maker of hand held computers, said it has signed an agreement with British mobile phone group mm02 to distribute Handspring’s new Treo family of phones in Europe. Treo, unveiled in October 2001 and expected to be become available this month, is a pocket-sized wireless communicator device that will be launched on mmO2’s GSM networks. Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.

Mountain View, California-based Handspring said the companies will work together during the first quarter of this year to launch Treo over mm02’s European arms, including BTCellnet in Britain, Viag in Germany, Telfort in the Netherlands and Digifone in Ireland. “MmO2 is a natural partner for us because it shares our vision of integrated, next generation wireless devices and services that offer real benefits to the consumer,” said Donna Dubinsky, chief executive of Handspring, in a statement. MmO2, one of Europe’s largest mobile companies, was spun off in November from British Telecommunications.(BT.L)

The pact represents one of the first carrier agreements for Treo, a critical new products for Handspring, second in the hand held computer market to Palm. Both hope to spur flagging demand and margins by introducing pricier devices that marry phones with personal organiser functions.

Handspring has not yet announced any carrier deals with US telecommunications operators specifically for Treo, although it has worked with Cingular Wireless and VoiceStream for other handspring devices. Coincidentally, mm02 also markets a combined device, the ‘XDA’, a mobile phone and organiser that is powered by Microsoft’s Pocket PC operating system software. Pocket PC competes with Palm OS, Palm’s system that drives Handspring devices.

Looking ahead, Wall Street analyst Bill Crawford said that Handspring must cast a wide net with the Treo devices, which are expected to be Handspring’s only major new product this year. “For the new Treo product to be successful, Handspring must get broad distribution by signing agreements with carriers around the world,” he said in a note to clients.