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Palm's Direction into the Future May Open New Windows

Dice   on 03 July 2006 - 03:52 · 9 comments & 6908 views

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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




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(2 replies) #1 Quick Reply on 03 Jul 2006 - 04:25
They should support Familier Linux on their Palm Hardware. That is unique and a lot of consumers would want that rather than Microsofts' OS.
#1.1 strekship on 03 Jul 2006 - 05:02
How do you know that customers would want it rather than WM? WM is one of Microsofts best achivments. It is a great OS for handhelds.
#1.2 lodgepole on 05 Jul 2006 - 12:49
"It is a great OS for handhelds"

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.
#2 MegaManXcalibur on 03 Jul 2006 - 04:39
It's sad to see that Palm OS was such a great OS for it's time but Palm (hardware company) never used Palm OS 6 (which is developed by the now bought out PalmSource). They have been squeezing every last ounce of blood out of Palm OS 5.

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.
#3 Xerxes on 03 Jul 2006 - 09:38
It's a shame that Palm OS is on it's way out, back in its day it was a great OS, I got given a Palm III running Palm OS 3.3 and while it was working () it was great
#4 L3thal on 03 Jul 2006 - 15:30
PALM OS doesn't stand a chance because its not compatible with many programs corporate users need it for, e.g Exchange Server. Plus, the new Treo 700P has the same exact Palm OS version that the Treo 650, the latter being almost two years old. What does this say? Well, the Palm OS has no life from here on out and if Palm wants to survive against the Blackberry and now Motorola with their Q, they need to dump their Palm OS and work with WM.
#5 kaptain chump on 03 Jul 2006 - 15:47
Where palm was strong was the simplicity of their PDA functions. From reviews ive read and personal first-hand experience, windows mobile simply takes more time to complete the same task (IE: add a date to the calendar). In windows mobile, i can click the calendar button, then click new, then type in stuff, where in palm i just click the calendar button and start typing in a time slot. IDK im no windows mobile pro, but it just seems like palm is more 'simple'

Id like to see what they can do with windows mobile though...im not afraid of change

treo 650 user
#6 ahhell on 04 Jul 2006 - 14:02
I always hated PalmOS. The whole Graffity (sp?) thing was stupid.

WM is far more usable than PalmOS ever was.
#7 Dessimat0r on 04 Jul 2006 - 15:59
I love PalmOS -- it is a great shame that the operating system seems to be dying now.

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