Death of Palm OS to be announced tomorrow

[CAlvarez]

I'm sure many of you have heard the rumor about the Treo running Windows Mobile (Pocket PC). I've seen it, and now the formal announcement will be made tomorrow. Palm is being sued over the ridiculous problems their OS has, and now the hardware part of Palm has defected to Windows Mobile for the Treo line.

Here's a look at it: http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/inde...n=expand,43159

This is exciting because I've been impressed with the general design of the Treo hardware, but the ancient and buggy Palm OS has kept me and many of my clients away from it. The marriage of a great PDA/Phone OS with Treo's hardware is a very welcome one.

I think this will also lead to much more integration work between Windows Mobile and the Mac, since it will concentrate the number of users with Windows Mobile.

[morphis]

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

PalmOS 6 is almost finished and Palm(PalmOne) decides to got Windows Mobile. It was bad enough when Nokia bowed down before Microsoft.

Most of the problems people have with PalmOS 5.4.x is using old software. The problem is Palm Source didn't spend enough time retrofitting the new filling system from PalmOS 6 to put in system calls to make sure old programs would just not work instead of crashing when making old filesystem calls.

If PalmOne goes Windows Mobile and Windows CE. I would say current owners of Palms' will most-likely not buy another one. I know of people how have personal stockpiles of Palms' for future use.

Also current 3rd-party Palm developers aren't going to be happy.

[CAlvarez]

Lots of people will be unhappy, lots of others will be happy. WM5 is eons ahead of Palm OS for use with phones, in particular. Whenever I've done a group trial with Palm phones, Pocket PC phones, and Blackberrys, the PPC always wins due to being more intuitive and easier for people to just start using.

I'd love to see what PalmOS 6 does with a PDA phone. I would love nothing more than to have another alternative worth trying, especially one that syncs smoothly and easily with the Mac.

[ShavenYak]

Quote: Originally Posted by CAlvarez I would love nothing more than to have another alternative worth trying, especially one that syncs smoothly and easily with the Mac.

See, there's the problem. Alternatives are always good. With Palm dead, Microsoft will be in a near-monopoly position in the smartphone/pda market. Which means they will spend virtually zero money and time on improving the platform and fixing bugs. And syncing smoothly with the Mac? Not in this lifetime - in fact, I'd not be surprised to see them actively breaking Mac sync functionality to try to tie the users to Windows desktops.

[CAlvarez]

Alternatives are not always good. When they fragment a tiny market, then you end up with what we have now; the software to make a Pocket PC work with a Mac isn't very good.

Your assertion that innovation on the OS will stop is false. They need to keep improving the OS to sell new versions, and to keep the dozens of third-party hardware/integrator companies happy. Windows Mobile 2003 SE is way ahead of Palm already, but they have WM 2005 ready to be released now. And it's a complete change in the way Pocket PC memory is handled and allocated. Biggest improvement: A dead battery no longer kills your data and settings.

I think Palm will push toward the Mac sync in order to try to get existing Palm customers to upgrade.

[ShavenYak]

Quote: Originally Posted by CAlvarez Your assertion that innovation on the OS will stop is false. They need to keep improving the OS to sell new versions, and to keep the dozens of third-party hardware/integrator companies happy.

No, they don't need to keep improving the OS to sell new versions. This is an even sweeter deal than their desktop monopoly. I can upgrade a PC that came with Windows 98 or 2k or XP, and keep the old OS. Or, I can buy a Mac instead, or use Linux. They actually need to innovate to sell Longhorn Vista.

But in the mobile world, if I buy a new device, it comes with the 'new' operating system. The 'old version' won't support the new hardware, and even if it did, the end-user doesn't have the tools to install it. And now, I don't even have the option to buy Palm instead. My choice in PDAs is now Microsoft, or a notepad and pen.*

Quote: Biggest improvement: A dead battery no longer kills your data and settings.

That's an improvement? I never remember a dead battery killing the data on my Handspring Visor, and that was YEARS ago. PalmOS may suck, but if Microsoft is just now figuring out how to keep users' data through a dead battery....

I'll try to look on the bright side - maybe with PalmOS dead, Apple will consider getting back into the PDA market.

* - yes, I know I can choose a Blackberry or Symbian-based phone, but those aren't quite the same market.

[CAlvarez]

Quote: But in the mobile world, if I buy a new device, it comes with the 'new' operating system. The 'old version' won't support the new hardware, and even if it did, the end-user doesn't have the tools to install it. And now, I don't even have the option to buy Palm instead. My choice in PDAs is now Microsoft, or a notepad and pen.*

Don't know what you mean by all that, but... If you want to upgrade the OS in your PDA, you generally have to pay for it unless it's just a minor update. New devices need new features. The carriers all have a stake in having new features so they can sell more devices, so they put the pressure on MS.

There is plenty of pressure from the phone market as the line between a high end phone and a PDA/phone gets more and more blurry.

Palm has been dead for years, people just hadn't noticed. Many Palm users have a fierce loyalty and assume the MS product is bad just because it's MS. How do I know this? I used to be one. After struggling with Palm OS for way too long, I decided I should look at the other options, even the one from MS.

Now if Jobs hadn't killed the Newton due to ego poisoning...

Imagine an iPod/Newton/Phone.

[Phil St. Romain]

Now if Jobs hadn't killed the Newton due to ego poisoning...

I thought it was because it wasn't making any money.

Any news on the big announcement?

[cwtnospam]

http://news.com.com/1606-2-5883058.html?tag=nefd.ac


Oh, and it is bad just because it comes from MS. Think long term.

[CAlvarez]

Quote: I thought it was because it wasn't making any money.

Yes, he did claim that, and a lot of people believed it. History shows he was against it all along, and there are plenty of other products in Apple's history that weren't money-makers. They paved the way with the Newton, and had they stayed in the market as it matured, they would have made money. In many ways, the Palm never caught up with the capabilities of the Newton, and the Pocket PC didn't catch up until recently.