Palm ships OS 5 to developers

[Ed Hansberry]

<a href="http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/business/technology/3437512.htm">http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/business/technology/3437512.htm</a><br /><br />PalmSource, the OS and software division, made good on a commitment to ship OS5 to developers by early summer. "The OS 5 platform is designed to be faster and more secure, and can accommodate richer audio and graphics. Multimedia users will be able to play back and record digital audio using higher-resolution screens. The new OS also expands built-in support for wireless networking -- considered the future direction of all mobile computer devices -- and should help improve connection speeds."<br /><br />Interesting isn't it? Those features the Pocket PC and Windows CE users have been saying for years are great features on a PDA have been blasted by Palm and its core user base as bloated and unnecessary are now the entire focus of OS5.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/palmos5.jpg" /><br /><br />The article says that Palm OS5 devices should be in stores later this summer. A <a href="http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=70&ncid=738&e=6&u=/cn/20020610/tc_cn/934351">Yahoo</a> article says "It will take about a year for the new ARM-based handhelds to fully supplant those running the older DragonBall chips in the product lineups at Palm and others. At that point you'll start to see development of ARM-based applications," Nagel said. "We're not doing much to encourage them to do that at this point." If that is the case, I don't see what OS 5 does for most people right now. It is a necessary stepping stone, but many industry analysts are looking for OS5 to halt Palm's slide in marketshare and cure their financial woes. Personally, I don't see it, other than an initial buying wave when the first devices ship. It is the next revision (OS6?) that is really supposed to add multitasking and will encourage native ARM applications. Given what we've seen out of Sony the past 12 months, I expect them to break some rules and start enabling things like multitasking sooner rather than wait for Palm to finish OS6.<br /><br />You can also read more about it at <a href="http://www.forbes.com/business/newswire/2002/06/09/rtr626365.html">Forbes</a>.

[ChrisD]

While Palm has shipped OS 5 to developers, It make me think of the following:

1. Why would a user want to buy a Palm 4.x device now? I suspect that they will see an impact on the sales of existing Palm devices as people wait.
2. Why would a user want to buy a Palm 5.0 device? So far there's no compelling reason to upgrade. No new features or functions.
3. Will Palm overcome the performance gap we see in XScale? I think they have fallen into the same trap with XScale as the Pocket PC has. From what I can tell, the design does not offer a huge increase in speed. See Are Pocket PC's Starving? http://www.cewindows.net/faqs/pocketpcstaving.htm
4. Why would a developer want to code specificallty for OS5? There's a claim that existing code will run so I doubt that developers will go out and port their apps especially since there already is a performance increase without lifting a finger. I do expect to see patched versions which will now work with OS5 though. If developers don't patch their code, they will be marginalized to selling to OS 4.x only.
5. Pricing of OS 5 devices - Palm better get a handle on this one! If they think that an OS 5 device with no new features can sell at the same price as a Pocket PC, then I doubt it will sell well. The critical point here is that the same cpu and ram is used in both so the pricing will be similar! Also, why would a consumer buy a more expensive device for no new features? Clearly Palm better have it's act together about upgrades! If it does not then their early adopters will be disappointed.

Overall, I'd say that Palm is creating an environment where it's difficult to compete with the Pocket PC. Clearly they are years too late and are struggling to catch up.

[Ed Hansberry]

I love these kinds of quotes:
"The memory footprint, even the new ARM version, is very efficient," said Gina Clark, vice president of marketing for PalmSource. "It continues to fit inside 4 megabytes (of memory), as it does today."
What does being limited have to do with being efficient? DOS took up around 4MB. Was that efficient, or just missing a whole lot of stuff.

Sure, Pocket PC 2002 devices take up an 22MB of RAM. Does that mean it is bloated though? Lets see.... the following are simply included in the ROM vs requiring you to load it into RAM:
• Excel
• Word
• Terminal Server client
• Messenger client
• File Explorer
• Internet Explorer
• Spell checker
• Handwriting recognition
• Inbox
• MS Reader
• Windows Media Player.
• etc.

Dump all of that and all of the sudden, Pocket PC 2002 is real close to that 4MB number.

[Jonathan1]

I love these kinds of quotes:
[quote]
Dump all of that and all of the sudden, Pocket PC 2002 is real close to that 4MB number.

Is it? Anyone have any idea what the size of the bare bones OS including driver is? Inquiring minds wanna know.

Here is a similar article over at news.com http://news.com.com/2100-1040-934512.html?tag=fd_top

I love the quote:
"I still think that (ease of use) is the reason that people buy our products," Nagel said.

:roll: What an idiot.

[mookie123]

Didn't that guy Yankowsky already talk about OS 5.0 as far back as December 2000?

If memory serve me right, by now, Palm should be in everybody's pocket, all wireless, and has all the SD/IO peripheral one can think off.

it would be really funny if somebody can track an old palm press release or an interview saying Palm OS 5.0 device would be in the market by december 2001

http://www.palmpowerenterprise.com/issues/issue200101/palmsource001.html

http://zdnet.com.com/2100-11-526336.html?legacy=zdnn

[Ed Hansberry]

Isit? Anyone have any idea what the size of the bare bones OS including driver is? Inquiring minds wanna know.
Not sure it is possible to get to the bare PPC OS size. After all, what is the OS?

I know that WinCE 3.0 and 4.0/.NET are capable of running with as little as 64K of code, but you obviously don't get much oomph for that. My point was the size of the ROM is meaningless in terms of "efficiency" or device simplicity.

[stevew]

I thought this was a Pocket PC site? :?

This enthusiast site is run by people who love using their Pocket PCs. First and foremost, we're an opinion site, and our views follow our passion for everything that is Pocket PC.

[Jason Dunn]

I thought this was a Pocket PC site? :?

"Know thy enemy." 8)

We focus 99% on Pocket PCs, but we're also interested in what the "other" guys are doing because it impacts us in several ways. We'll try not to get too carried away though!

[angelseye2000]

It's nice to be in both camps with my palm and ppc (both have there pros and minors). It's also nice to see both camps talking doom and gloom about eachother over and over again.

It's very rare to find one positive remark about eachother.....and most of the time it's from the same persons.

[Dave Conger]

I thought this was a Pocket PC site? :?"Know thy enemy." 8)

Jason, wern't you "going to" buy palmthoughts.com? Actually, I think that was one of your April Fools jokes a while back (you had such a "great' experience with the Palm m505...or something to that effect).

I wonder, is Microsoft a licensees of Palm OS 5? I though a while back we heard they ere licensing 4...that would kind of make it Pocket PC news.

[angelseye2000]

Why the Palm OS Is the Inevitable Winner
http://www.palminfocenter.com/view_Story.asp?ID=3626
Palm OS 5 Goes Golden Master
http://www.palminfocenter.com/view_Story.asp?ID=3632

Both posted by Ed ;o)

[palm rep]

I debate the Palm vs. PPC issue everyday. (It's my job). IMO, Palm needs the ARM w/ OS5 ought right now simply for survival. Check out their stock. It's a great OS, incredibly versatile, and the choice of enterprise, however, the public is demanding a stronger unit with balls. (Not dragonballs). Very, Very soon there will be a new wireless device from Palm that will redefine their handhelds. Okay, so maybe I said that about the 705 too. At least palm will be back in the game with multimedia capabilities.

name withheld