06-24-2005, 10:00 PM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 8,228
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Nagel Says "Windows Mobile Will Never Dominate"
http://www.pocketfactory.com/archives/2005/06/blast_from_the.php
"Microsoft will never dominate handheld computers because they will not develop like PCs, with different vendors cloning a standard hardware architecture running one operating system, according to the head of Palm's software arm Palmsource."
Of course, Nagel is no longer there, but these words found by Foo Fighter are exactly what is wrong with PalmOS devices today. PalmOne, for example, is taking this to such an extreme, each device has a different flavor of PalmOS on it, so much so that some apps aren't working. With every new OS, there are going to be some issues with software having to be updated, be it Windows XP, Mac OSX or Windows Mobile. However, once each major revision is released, if an application runs on one device it can be reasonably expected to run on all devices.
Not so pa1mOne devices. Jeff Kirvin has a rant on just this issue. It is an interesting listen on what is wrong with PalmOne right now and amazingly enough, he praises the Windows Mobile model of having one basic OS for the platform rather than a unique tweak for each and every device and also for Microsoft bringing developers into the beta process and ensuring they have plenty of documentation on the databases, APIs, drivers, etc.
It is interesting to me that as time marches on, the Microsoft way of doing mobile devices, once ridiculed and shunned in the late 90's and even for the first few years of 2000 is proving to be the best way to manage a true mobile platform. If you give each licensee enough wiggle room to do much more than surface customization, you run into the API nightmare that PalmOS has fostered for the last few years where developers are getting sick and tired of guessing and rewriting code for each new device and users have had it with buying a new device and finding out that their favorite software doesn't work right on it. Contrast that to Windows Mobile where it is the norm that once an app works on a given OS, say Windows Mobile 2003SE, it is a very safe bet it will work on all WM2003SE devices.
Oh yeah, and while Windows Mobile does not dominate the mobile device landscape now it is ahead of the PalmOS platform, and with devices on the SmartPhone side like the Audiovox SMT5600, Microsoft will continue to get an increasing share of the space. I am sure Nokia is no longer looking at MS as a mere gnat in this area.
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06-24-2005, 10:37 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 1,466
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In a word...YES.
Precisely why I parted ways with Palm during the Handspring visor debacles.
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06-24-2005, 11:15 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Oct 2004
Posts: 102
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Re: Nagel Says "Windows Mobile Will Never Dominate"
PalmOS? What's that? Does have to do something with Palm Springs?
Errr, I think that only Symbian and Linux are real competition to Windows Mobile and Palm OS is also drifting in this direction and putting GUI on Linux.
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06-24-2005, 11:25 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,202
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Re: Nagel Says "Windows Mobile Will Never Dominate"
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Ed Hansberry
It is interesting to me that as time marches on, the Microsoft way of doing mobile devices, once ridiculed and shunned in the late 90's and even for the first few years of 2000 is proving to be the best way to manage a true mobile platform. If you give each licensee enough wiggle room to do much more than surface customization, you run into the API nightmare that PalmOS has fostered for the last few years where developers are getting sick and tired of guessing and rewriting code for each new device and users have had it with buying a new device and finding out that their favorite software doesn't work right on it. Contrast that to Windows Mobile where it is the norm that once an app works on a given OS, say Windows Mobile 2003SE, it is a very safe bet it will work on all WM2003SE devices.
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I agree 100%, and yet, Mike Mace - Chief Competitive Officer (is that even a legitimate title? :bangin: ) for PalmSource has this to say about standardized apps:
>> Do you believe the Palm OS is at a disadvantage from a license's point of view that does not ship with built-in standardized applications compared to MSFT Mobile's OS which does ship with MSFT applications to allow the manipulation of MSFT files?
Most of the licensee requests we're getting are for more phone-related apps being a standard part of the OS, and we're working on it. Beyond that, most of our licensees are glad that we give them flexibility in the software they choose to bundle. It's one of the reasons they do business with us.
This was quoted in a recent Q&A Mace did at the allaboutpalm message boards:
http://www.allaboutpalm.com/forum/sh...ge=2&pp=10
It seems PalmSource still doesn't really understand all the problems caused by non-standardization, or even worse, doesn't care. This would seem to explain at least part of the reason they are losing market share. They have an extremely difficult time understanding and delivering what their customers want. It's almost as if they think they still own 80% of the market and can tell customers what they need. Very frustrating for those of us who want real choices in our handhelds!
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06-24-2005, 11:33 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Aug 2004
Posts: 90
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The Microsoft Way...
After getting burned with a Diamond Mako purchase only to find out that Psion was pulling out of the handheld market, Microsoft became the clear solution. It's very disappointing to spend a lot of money on applications to find that the platform will become extinct! What Microsoft cannot do through brilliance and strategy, Microsoft can accomplish through deep pockets and brute force marketing. Also, the Pocket PC platform tends to have much more powerful programs than the Palm.
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06-25-2005, 12:29 AM
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Mystic
Join Date: Nov 2006
Posts: 1,887
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Literally-speaking, he *is* right; MS will never dominate mobile devices the way they dominate desktops.
They'll find *new* ways to get there. 8)
If we look at what non-MS OS vendors are *doing* instead of what they're saying, it is easy to see the long-term mobile OS market becoming a classic 80-20 market with two camps; Windows/.net and Java-on-Linux.
Both offer a standard component-based coding platform and robust multi-threading kernel. The difference is the MS solutions are coherent, cohesive, and nicely integrated top to bottom and JOL is a cut-n-paste-and-debug-like-heck toolkit, hence the 4-to-1 skew-to-come. 
Plus, WM is here now and on the ascendancy and the JOL packs are still about 2 years away.
Palm OS, is at this point, like Symbian, a legacy environment suitable for short-term use but not for long-term commitment.
$0.02.
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06-25-2005, 02:31 AM
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Sage
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 652
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So MS won't dominate that sector of the market. Big deal, neither will Palm. As long as MS is willing to compete with the other players out there the end-user and software developer wins. Everyone will get something they wanted sooner of later.
MS keeping a tight hold on the WM OS is good. It keeps everyone on the same page. Being a former Palm user I never understood why Palm alllowed for example Sony to manipulate the OS so much that most third party memory programs never worked on their Clie. Even with CF slot wasn't using standard drivers on later editions. MS may not have all the answers and probably nobody does but MS is a whole lot better than Palm.
__________________
Making use of mobile tech like no other.
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06-25-2005, 02:48 AM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 8,228
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by WyattEarp
MS may not have all the answers and probably no does buy MS is a whole lot better than Palm.
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Say again? :?
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06-25-2005, 04:43 AM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 1,466
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by WyattEarp
MS may not have all the answers and probably no does buy MS is a whole lot better than Palm.
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Captain, the Universal Translator has malfunctioned. Set Phasers to gibberish. :bangin:
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06-25-2005, 04:46 AM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 1,466
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by WyattEarp
So MS won't dominate that sector of the market. Big deal, neither will Palm.
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Uh...I thought the point of this story is that Microsoft does dominate that sector of the market.
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