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Palm is often compared to Apple.

Once the dominant mobile computer solution, the Palm platform lost a considerable amount of market share to other handheld and smartphone vendors in recent years. One of these other companies just so happens to be Apple's nemesis … Microsoft.

Like Apple and its Macintosh computer platform back in the '80s and '90s, Palm has found acceptance in the education market. For instance, AlphaSmart's Palm-based Dana is a laptop alternative for schools that is considerably cheaper than traditional notebook computers.

Palm's success with educators—as with Apple's—isn't an accident. The platform's developer, PalmSource, and its chief licensee, palmOne, have both made major investments towards attracting school dollars by offering discounts and education-based solutions, the latest of which palmOne announced earlier today.

The company's new back-to-school promotion—open to all public and private k-12 schools, colleges and universities in the Unites States—offers educators three free Tungsten E handhelds with the purchase of 30 such devices.

They will also get a special software eBundle and accessories that palmOne claims is valued at more than $800, as well as a software and utilities Bonus Pack with $4,000 worth of software and utilities discounts.

The "eBundle" includes 33 copies of one eBook title from the eReader Classics Collection; Zire logo backpacks; Palm logo graph-ruled notebooks; and logo graph-ruled notebooks; plus one copy for the teacher of any eBook title from eReader.com.

It also contains 33 palmOne Software Education Demo CDs, which has information on the use of palmOne handhelds in schools and descriptions of trial versions of more than 200 curriculum and management applications.

palmOne's Bonus pack includes discounts on utilities as well as curriculum and productivity titles, such as eBook Studio from eReader, ImagiProbe from ImagiWorks, SD Express! from Grant Street Software, and Documents To Go Premium Edition 7 from DataViz.

This latest promotion builds on one launched back in June where palmOne said schools that purchased thirty or more Tungsten C wireless handhelds through its Education Purchase Program would get a free license for a new Wi-Fi-based file distribution and exchange program called LearnTraceFX from the Readiness Company.