http://www.mbizcentral.com/story/FRONTPAGE/MBZ20020206S0011I think that title says is all - Palm's OS 5, not even shipping yet, isn't very exciting to most people who have seen it. We'll have to see what the new OS 5 devices look like (Sony might produce a killer device), but let's face it: the Palm advantage is eroding. Does anyone think that Palm can put a 200+ Mhz StrongARM processor, 32+ megs of RAM, high-resolution 16-bit colour screens, real speakers, a headphone jack, control pad, and other hardware...and not have the price rise, the battery life get worse, and the physical size get bigger? And then there's the software...
"...In a move that could alienate some of Palm's developers and users, arguably Palm's greatest asset, the new OS will not offer native support for applications developed for 16-bit versions. Instead, the older architecture will now be emulated in the new OS, and stories circulating the wires suggest that only around 80% of current applications will survive the transition. Palm, however, estimates that it has "a couple hundred thousand registered developers" in the OS 5 program."
Source: Todd Ogasawara