This week Palm mentioned two future devices, one which is expected in August or September and the other by the end of this year. Sadly though Palm has stumbled onto some blocks.
First, the Treo 650 will stop shipping in Europe because of new hazardous waste regulations that are taking effect that the phone does not comply with. Palm is feverously working to ready its next devices currently codenamed ‘Lennon’ and ‘Nitro’ to Europe and US markets as soon as it possibly can, but the company didn’t have any release dates available during the call. Not a lot of information is available about the new devices planned by Palm, but we do know that Nitro will be based off on the PalmOS and Lennon will run Windows Mobile 2005. It also looks like non-phone Palm products probably won’t last much longer as LifeDrive wasn’t the product Palm was hoping it would be and hasn’t sold as well as projected. This is further supported by comments made by Palm CEO Ed Colligan, indicating that the company continues to refocus on its smartphone products. Palm’s non-smartphone handhelds and other device sales numbers have also steadily declined over the last four years from 100% of sales in 2003 to only 25% of sales today.
There were also some other comments made during the call that lead us to believe that PalmOS may be on the way out. According to Palm, developing for two separate operating systems is too expensive, and more devices coming to market continue to ship with Windows Mobile. Although the change isn’t reflected in Palm's current device roadmap, the company mentioned that it would make sense. RIM devices run on RIM OS and although it faces heavy competition from Microsoft, RIM devices have a good deal of enterprise level penetration. From the sounds of things, Palm is in the same ballpark as other mobile smartphone makers. Try as it might, Palm doesn’t seem like it's gaining much headway against RIM and the Blackberry in the enterprise and business markets. With this in mind, we could be witnessing an entire new line of products from Palm shipping with Windows Mobile.
News source: DailyTech
First, the Treo 650 will stop shipping in Europe because of new hazardous waste regulations that are taking effect that the phone does not comply with. Palm is feverously working to ready its next devices currently codenamed ‘Lennon’ and ‘Nitro’ to Europe and US markets as soon as it possibly can, but the company didn’t have any release dates available during the call. Not a lot of information is available about the new devices planned by Palm, but we do know that Nitro will be based off on the PalmOS and Lennon will run Windows Mobile 2005. It also looks like non-phone Palm products probably won’t last much longer as LifeDrive wasn’t the product Palm was hoping it would be and hasn’t sold as well as projected. This is further supported by comments made by Palm CEO Ed Colligan, indicating that the company continues to refocus on its smartphone products. Palm’s non-smartphone handhelds and other device sales numbers have also steadily declined over the last four years from 100% of sales in 2003 to only 25% of sales today.
There were also some other comments made during the call that lead us to believe that PalmOS may be on the way out. According to Palm, developing for two separate operating systems is too expensive, and more devices coming to market continue to ship with Windows Mobile. Although the change isn’t reflected in Palm's current device roadmap, the company mentioned that it would make sense. RIM devices run on RIM OS and although it faces heavy competition from Microsoft, RIM devices have a good deal of enterprise level penetration. From the sounds of things, Palm is in the same ballpark as other mobile smartphone makers. Try as it might, Palm doesn’t seem like it's gaining much headway against RIM and the Blackberry in the enterprise and business markets. With this in mind, we could be witnessing an entire new line of products from Palm shipping with Windows Mobile.
News source: DailyTech
For handlhelds maybe, but I find the PALM OS UI on the Treo's superior to the windows version. and yes, i've used both. I found myself clicking on the screen way too many times on the windows version and perhaps that's a matter of customization but it's a phone first, not a handheld and in my opinion they should tailor it accordingly. I know...all of this bitching might simply be Palm needing to customize the WM platform so that it resembles the UI on their OS. Although, I'm not sure how much MS arm-twisting goes on with the WM UI design.
What I would like to see is Palm buy the rights to Palm OS from Access (they don't seem to want anything from it anyways by the looks of it) and throw in a different kernel (there are rumors that they are working on a Linux derivative of some sort and PalmSource was working on a Linux based Palm OS upgrade so Linux would be a good place to start) and expand upon the current programs in Palm OS. That would allow them to have an operating system that would hopefully be able to run current Palm programs and keep the familiar look and feel of Palm OS.
But I doubt Palm has that much foresight. They seem to always be behind other companies technologywise (but again it has always been this way when Sony, Handsping, etc. were innovating in the PDA market Palm just waited to use their ideas years later) and don't seem to have any desire to change that (the new Treo's hardware isn't much better then the 650 and the form factory is almost exactly the same even though customers have been asking for a thinner device without the attena for years).
I dont know what to think anymore. I love Palm OS which is the only reason I have a Palm PDA but if Palm keeps on their current line of doing business they probably won't be around for much longer. They seem to be slowly killing themselves.
Id like to see what they can do with windows mobile though...im not afraid of change
treo 650 user
WM is far more usable than PalmOS ever was.
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