Could PalmOne Use Windows Mobile?

[Robert Levy]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/68/35194.html' target='_blank'>http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/68/35194.html</a><br /><br /></div>An interesting story over at The Register claims that PalmOne is considering the use of other operating systems in their devices. <br /><br />"Vesey Crichton, PalmOne's European chief has suggested that the handheld company is open to considering other operating systems - and praised Nokia for "fantastic" work in promoting its phone platforms. Palm OS isn't viewed internally as a religion, Chrichton told Swedish handheld magqazine Allt om Handdatorer"<br /><br />"Candidates include two Symbian based offerings - Nokia's Series 60 and UIQ, Linux, and - although it seems unthinkable - Microsoft's Smartphone platform. But a few years ago, it was unthinkable that Psion Computer would be promoting Windows CE as its primary operating system, as it is now."<br /><br />Right now this just sounds like total speculation, but it is an interesing scenario. Check out the <a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/68/35194.html">full article</a> for more. What do you think will happen?

[Mike Temporale]

There were rumblings in the old Handspring that they might adopte another OS. So this isn't really that surprising to me.

As for the options, I think there are only a couple real ones. Palm is fast becoming the under-dog in the smartphone market. Sure they have the Treo, but that's it really. They can hold onto PalmSource and stay the course, or jump ship. If they are going to start looking around, I would imagine they would be looking for something with a proven track record. So that's really Symbian or Microsoft.

My money is on Symbian. I think the Palm world would have a meltdown if PalmOne shipped with anything Microsoft based on it. :roll: However, Jeff Hawkins seems to speak his mind. And like I mentioned I've heard rumblings in the past. So maybe he's already made the decision and this is just a way for him to slowly introduce the idea. Thus making it easier for the world to accept when it does happen.