09-27-2003, 10:00 PM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 8,228
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Back At The Waffle House
Once again Palm/PalmOne/PalmSource has changed directions. The latest is PalmSource to build smart phone OS. Currently, Palm is putting the finishing touches on Palm OS 6, code named "ThisOneSupportsMultitasking.ReallyWePromiseThisTime." They are going to take OS 5 though and instead of drop it, focus it to work better on smart phone devices.
That is a good thing in my opinion. Microsoft figured this out in 1999 when they started the Smartphone project in earnest, then called Stinger. They started with the Pocket PC OS, as yet unreleased at that time, and started taking things out to make the phone experience better. It quickly became evident that the best way was to just take a very small section of the Windows CE 3.0 core and build a dedicated platform for the phones. History was repeating itself. They did the same thing when they tried to put a stripped down NT4 kernel in handheld devices and eventually decided it was best to start at ground zero and work up. Thus Windows CE was born. Ok, enough history.
Palm, though, is sending mixed messages. Larry Slotnick is the Chief Product Officer at PalmSource. In this CNet article, he says "Every Symbian device is a customization project, so very few applications run on all Symbian products," Slotnick said. "The same is true for Windows Mobile--an application for a Windows smart phone doesn't necessarily work on Pocket PC." He then claims "He said this standardization is a major advantage of Palm OS, compared with Windows Mobile or Symbian, the operating system that powers smart phones from Nokia, Sony Ericsson and others."
Come on. You can't have it both ways. You tout standardization at a trade show yet in the back room, developers are working furiously to transform OS 5 into a rich smartphone platform and bring OS 6 up to the level of computing the competitors have had since 2000. Yes, standardization is good but when you try to cram a full PDA interface onto a voice centric device, you have people with tiny styluses tapping tiny screens. With an OS designed for a touchless screen, you get something that people can use and understand. There is no way they will build a great voice centric OS that runs all of the PDA applications. Of course, I doubt they really plan to. This is just more marketing speak from Palm that boils down to their unofficial slogan: "You don't need it until we have it." :roll: They spend more time slamming the features of the competition in the newsroom and copying them in the development lab than any other company I know. If they would pick a direction and focus on it, listening to their customers instead of telling them what they do and don't need, they never would have fallen from their over 80% market dominance in the late 90's to the mid/upper-30% range today.
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09-28-2003, 01:38 AM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 173
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Here, here, Ed. In the words of Rob Corddry, "I mean... COME ON!!!"
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09-28-2003, 01:44 AM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Aug 2007
Posts: 238
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However, since POS is simpler in design, I would figure it's easier to fit it onto a phone cpmpared to MS. There's less overhead/complexity for it, MS tries too hard sometimes to be everyting to everyone.
To be honest, I'm not sure if I'd ever want a phone that has an OS from MS, my PC, fine, but a phone is something that has to be instant.
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09-28-2003, 02:14 AM
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Mystic
Join Date: Dec 2003
Posts: 1,639
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by guinness
However, since POS is simpler in design, I would figure it's easier to fit it onto a phone cpmpared to MS. There's less overhead/complexity for it, MS tries too hard sometimes to be everyting to everyone.
To be honest, I'm not sure if I'd ever want a phone that has an OS from MS, my PC, fine, but a phone is something that has to be instant.
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I believe you are right. Even the POS 4.2 Smartphones like the Kyocera and the Samsung are much better than the MS Smartphone. The PPCPE does not seem to be the way to go either. When the Treo 600 arrives it is going to be the best integrated solution available by far, even though it has some major weaknesses. As much as I enjoy the PPC platform, I don't see the point in MS Smartphone.
I'm still inclined to be believe that for many people a full featured PPC plus a tiny BT cellphone is going to prove to be the best solution. I would like to see an update of the T68i, this would be perfect for me other than the super slow GPRS system.
To get back to Ed's topic, PalmSource seem to be trying to make POS be as close to MS as possible. This might well be a mistake, since their big selling point has always been simplicity and I'm sure that most PDA users don't care about all the goodies PPC offers. They just want an electronic database which Palm was always good at.
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Cheers!
David
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09-28-2003, 03:33 AM
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Philosopher
Join Date: Aug 2002
Posts: 593
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Remember when PPC was criticized for trying to be too much?
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09-28-2003, 05:01 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 Fitch
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In the words of Comedian Lewis Black... "If we eat the cows that ate the stuff we didn't eat...we're still eating it!"
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09-28-2003, 05:04 AM
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Pupil
Join Date: Mar 2003
Posts: 48
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There are degrees of customization. To criticize simply because an OS must undergo some customization to work in a new environment is silly.
So far as smartphones go, it's not even the degree of customization that is important, but how much that customization affects the degree of backwards compatability and how much it affects the UI/user experience.
If Palm wants to throw years and millions of dollars at efforts to produce a smartphone, more power to them. I think that competition between OSes, within reason, is a good thing. In the end, the consumer will decide which platform is preferable.
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09-28-2003, 05:17 AM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 153
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I didn't knwo Palm has smartphone. I thought Treo is no more than Visor with radio transmitter attached to it. Even the 600 isn't much more than its predecessor, so much for customization.
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09-28-2003, 06:24 AM
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Pupil
Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 14
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There's half-truth to the statistics here. Palm's share of the handheld OS market has dropped from the 80's to perhaps in the 50's and not 30's or near 40's as stated.
And looking at the pie chart - it goes to show that PPC platform is more expensive than Palm's.
Don't forget, besides Palm (or palmOne) and Sony, there are other licensees that should be added to get a more accurate look at it. What Ed's statement suggest is that Palm's own hardware market share has dropped and that is true. But most of the slack have been taken up by other licensees; especially Sony.
Back in 1995, PPC was but another egg yet to be hatched in M$ labs. And then came along Symbian and RIM and Linux, etc. When new players come in, there will be some reshuffling of market share. I am not sure if it is better to have more choices, but it sure is good that they don't sit on the laurels but keep improving the OS.
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09-28-2003, 06:35 AM
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Intellectual
Join Date: May 2003
Posts: 127
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Quote:
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Come on. You can't have it both ways. You tout standardization at a trade show yet in the back room, developers are working furiously to transform OS 5 into a rich smartphone platform and bring OS 6 up to the level of computing the competitors have had since 2000.
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Palm OS 5 phone Edition will primarily include all the Treo600 optimazitons included in Handspring's "OS 5.2.1H." These are primarily API's dealing with seamless dialpad nav, thumbboard integration, voice recorder and etc. (This is primarily the reason why the Treo600 probably won't be upgradeable to this new phone editon) Thus, you're partly correct in the sense that PalmSource will not be totally rebuilding the OS for mobiles. Secondly the 'standardization' of the OS refers to the fact that most PalmOS applications that work on PalmOS handhelds will work PalmOS smartphones. This is not the case for example between Series 60 and UIQ and WM03 and MS Smartphone 2002/03. Furthermore PalmOS smartphones are not software locked like many other platforms by wireless providers. Finally as Nagel stated, the Phone edtion will principally be focused at the low end smartphone segment towards the "$200 USD" price point b/c of it small footprint etc. This does not mean there will not eventually be higher end Palm OS 6 smartphones as well...
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