Palm To Finally Deliver A New OS?

[Ed Hansberry]

<a href="http://www.palminfocenter.com/news/8301/colligan-talks-about-next-generation-palm-os-progress/">http://www.palminfocenter.com/news/8301/colligan-talks-about-next-generation-palm-os-progress/</a><br /><br /><i>"Colligan told investors in his opening remarks that the Centro systems team and all Foleo engineers are now totally focused on delivering the next generation platform. He also put a concrete timeframe on its debut, stating they expect it to be "available" by the end of next calendar year. After years of lingering rumors, Colligan first confirmed the project at an analyst even in April. The OS is widely expected to be the long awaited replacement to the Palm OS. This Linux based OS has been largely developed at Palm and is not to be confused with ACCESS Inc's mobile Linux project, ALP."</i><br /><br />By "available" if that means to device manufacturers, including Palm, it will likely be Q1 2009 before devices are ready, and that assumes carriers approve it on their network. We'll see. We've heard this many times before since February 2004 when <a href="http://www.access-company.com/news/press/PalmSource/2004/021004_cobalt.html">they announced Cobalt</a>, the successor to the current platform. Almost 4 years later, not a single device has shipped with the new OS.

[possmann]

You know - at some level you can't help but feel sorry for Palm...

[alese]

You know - at some level you can't help but feel sorry for Palm...

Why?
They had their chance and they blew it.
But they can still sell WM Treos, no need for another OS that's still 1,5 years away and that they won't be able to support and develop on the long run...

[thierryb]

Apple have had the same issue, and finally survive, and even vive without the sur, switching from proprietary OS to a unix based one.

We all know from long time, that Palm have to follow the example of Apple.

Go on Palm, Microsoft needs competitors, even if they already have one strong with Symbian.

[Dyvim]

New os will be out in late 2008.
Maybe by 2012 not one single device will have been built for that OS either and then they'll have the next version of the OS out that no one will build any devices for either (meanwhile they'll be shipping the Treo 2680p running Garnet still).

Call me skeptical, but I'll believe it when I see it on a store shelf.

[virain]

Yeah...Another Foleo story, remember that one?

[Ed@Brighthand]

By "available" if that means to device manufacturers, including Palm, it will likely be Q1 2009 before devices are ready, and that assumes carriers approve it on their network. We'll see. We've heard this many times before since February 2004 when they announced Cobalt (http://www.access-company.com/news/press/PalmSource/2004/021004_cobalt.html), the successor to the current platform. Almost 4 years later, not a single device has shipped with the new OS.
The two situations are not the same. Cobalt wasn't created by Palm. It was developed by a separate company called PalmSource, which is now a part of Access. Palm's major involvement in Cobalt was to reject it.

Palm has since completely given up on PalmSource/Access, and what Colligan is talking about in this announcement is an operating system that his company is developing for use on its own devices.

Palm doesn't have to hope that other companies will license this OS. It's going to put it on its own Treos. And Colligan said in yesterday's conference call that the OS won't just be ready by the end of 2008, but devices running it will be on the market.

Access has developed a followup to Cobalt called ALP, but like I said Palm has given up on that company and has no interest in ALP.

All this means that Palm isn't taking my suggestion to give up on developing its own operating system. Instead, I think that it should create a "Palm OS" shell for Windows Mobile. Of course, I didn't really expect it to. Still, if you're interested, you can read the details here:
http://www.brighthand.com/default.asp?newsID=13351
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[Ed Hansberry]

By "available" if that means to device manufacturers, including Palm, it will likely be Q1 2009 before devices are ready, and that assumes carriers approve it on their network. We'll see. We've heard this many times before since February 2004 when they announced Cobalt (http://www.access-company.com/news/press/PalmSource/2004/021004_cobalt.html), the successor to the current platform. Almost 4 years later, not a single device has shipped with the new OS.
The two situations are not the same. Cobalt wasn't created by Palm. It was developed by a separate company called PalmSource, which is now a part of Access. Palm's major involvement in Cobalt was to reject it.
At the time, PalmSource wasn't a separate company, it was part of Palm.
All this means that Palm isn't taking my suggestion to give up on developing its own operating system. Instead, I think that it should create a "Palm OS" shell for Windows Mobile. Of course, I didn't really expect it to. Still, if you're interested, you can read the details here:
http://www.brighthand.com/default.asp?newsID=13351
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That would just create even more confusion in the third party software/hardware area. "Oh, you have Windows Mobile 7? Is that Windows Mobile 7 Standard, Professional, or Windows Mobile 7 Palm?"