Growing Palm show reflects handheld_s grip.

The Palm Computing developers conference, running this week in Santa Clara, California, has grown up a lot since last year_s event. Once a forum for discussing the latest in free games and utilities for the popular PalmPilot handheld, the PalmSource event has skyrocketed in attendance and now reflects Palm Computing_s attempts to build an entire industry around its handheld operating system and applications. The event will also be an opportunity to smooth ruffled software developer feathers. Some of those developers have been irked by competition from Palm in some peripheral markets. The week-long conference will showcase new Palm licensees such as TRG, Handspring, and Nokia, as well as companies launching content for the newly available Palm VII and its Palm.net wireless service. Game developers now will share trade-show floor space with serious-minded enterprise software firms such as Oracle and wireless network providers such as Bell South. The shift in focus reflects Palm_s recognition of the growing emphasis on handheld devices as a way to connect to the Net without wires.