Comments on: PalmSource Stumbles As Sony Exits

Shares of PalmSource took a dive on Tuesday as the news of the Sony's dropout spread on Wall Street. A article at thestreet.com looks at some of the influencing factors and results of the move.
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The Gartner report was flawed

Rome @ 6/2/2004 3:08:07 PM #
Why wasn't the IDC report used instead of Gartner's? The Gartner report excludes the sale of Treo 600 while including Blackberry sales figures.

Typical Wall Street...

RE: The Gartner report was flawed
Token User @ 6/2/2004 3:15:09 PM #
Many Gartner studies are flawed ... but so are IDC. Unfortunately you pay more for a Gartner subscription (and to be included in a study), so the information MUST be right.

~ "Don't be too proud of this technological terror you've constructed." - DV ~
RE: The Gartner report was flawed
dsaroff @ 6/3/2004 11:48:08 AM #
Regarding Token User's comment that,

"you pay more for a Gartner subscription (and to be included in a study)", I wish to correct him on major error.

Gartner DOES NOT charge companies to be included in a Research study.

I work for Gartner and I know this for a fact. While I am often dubious ofour own research, especially that on PDAs, I know for a fact that Gartner takes impartiality seriously. If we charged companies to be in a study, our research would be absolutely suspect (and rightfully so).

RE: The Gartner report was flawed
Token User @ 6/4/2004 7:20:26 PM #
Hmmm. Interesting. I work for a company that is often ignored by Gartner in our vertical market space because we do not have a business relationship with Gartner ... despite that we are still a leader in our segment. It is true that you don't "pay" to be in a Gartner report, but they do look more favourably on companies that "buy their chickens from the right supplier".

Gartner == Research Mafia.

I am sure they are a great company to work for (looked into working for them in the past), and I am sure that you work for an ethical group (somewhere away from the marketing bods). Money talks.

~ "Don't be too proud of this technological terror you've constructed." - DV ~

Hello? Why is this different than the Betamax wars?

johnbartley @ 6/2/2004 6:05:01 PM #
Folks, chill.

Look at the way Sony does business. They either create a market (Betamax, Walkman) or enter with high-margin, well crafted products.

Sony bails or retrenches when a market segment becomes commoditized, and that's what PDAs are, right now; a commodity item. PalmSource has been talking a lot with China, and nobody can commoditize a product like China.

It is extremely wise of Sony to take a breath here, and then reconsider a few glitches; forex, shipping the BT-capable versions of the PEG T-55 to Europe and East Asia only. BT has hit critical mass here in the Statess; heck, if I can buy a PT Cruiser with BT, it has mainstreamed.

Sony's proprietary graphics made sense when they led the pack in resolution; now that Palm and other folks have half-VGA screens (480x320), the Sony-only programming required for special modes (e.g., landscape) is so yesterday it ain't even funny.

Convergence is the future, yet Sony's relationship with Ericsson for Symbian-OS cellphones has to be rethought, because the Euros are starting to realize a 'smartphone' which don't run PPC or PalmOS is a very dumb phone, indeed.

PalmOne is shipping every Treo600 they can make (and ain't we glad the build quality is back to only 1-2% defective!). Given the bad decisions Sony has made in this market, slowing down for the speed bump of their recent PDA market share drop shows someone upstairs at Sony has woken up to smell the green tea.


there is no war; Sony really tried
tompi @ 6/2/2004 9:06:03 PM #
Sony's proprietary graphics made sense when they led the pack in resolution; now that Palm and other folks have half-VGA screens (480x320), the Sony-only programming required for special modes (e.g., landscape) is so yesterday it ain't even funny.

Do you seriously believe that Sony wanted to do their own audio APIs, their own hi-res APIs, and their own Bluetooth utilities? They probably had to because Palm didn't include them in PalmOS in time for them to ship with these models, and it just seems to be a lot of work to switch over to the Palm APIs once Palm comes out with them. I suspect it is just this sort of thing that has caused Sony to stop shipping Clies in the US/Europe.

For example, the TH-55 doesn't include Palm's Bluetooth connection manager or the new Datebook/ToDo features of the T3, even though it came out long after the T3. The TH-55 can't even reliably make a connection with a Sony-Ericsson phone. Whose fault do you think that is? Do you think Sony doesn't want their customers to be able to connect to their phones? Or do you think that somehow the way Palm ships PalmOS made it impossible for them to include it in the TH-55? I think it's the latter.

Convergence is the future, yet Sony's relationship with Ericsson for Symbian-OS cellphones has to be rethought, because the Euros are starting to realize a 'smartphone' which don't run PPC or PalmOS is a very dumb phone, indeed.

What's "dumb" about it? Symbian has lots of software available for it, and friends of mine that have it (and have used Palm) love it.

My recent PDAs have been a Sony TG-50, a Tungsten T3, and a Sony TH-55. All of them have had serious software problems and limitations, all of them have crashed with regularity (and the T3 even developed a hardware problem within a couple of weeks). I've only stuck with Palm because it has been the lesser of two evils, but that's not a good long-term business proposition.

I think my next device is not going to be a Palm, no matter what. If Sony came out with a Symbian-based PDA, I'd buy it in a minute.

RE: Hello? Why is this different than the Betamax wars?
doctor__no @ 6/3/2004 12:04:03 AM #
ppl seem to forget that Sony has help create two of the most used formats ever, and have been very sucessful in that.

That being the much used 3.5" floppydisk which they introduced in 1980;

http://www.accurite.com/FloppyPrimer.html

And the CD-ROM (which they developed with Philips).

http://www.usbyte.com/common/compact_disk.htm

Basically format wars have historically came down to which electronic giant(usually Japanese) you want to pay your dues too. Be it VHS(JVC/Matsu****a) or Beta(Sony), or Memory Stick (Sony) or SD (Matsu****a/Toshiba/Sandisk).



RE: Hello? Why is this different than the Betamax wars?
SeldomVisitor @ 6/3/2004 6:25:26 AM #
> ...Treo600...(and ain't we glad the build quality
> is back to only 1-2% defective!)...

Says who?

Are ALL Treo 600 defective?
;-o @ 6/3/2004 8:35:22 AM #
He meant to say 10 - 20%. My experience was that closer to 30% of Treo 600 were "defective".

But it all depends on the individual what "defective" means. e.g. In terms of phone sound quality, in some ways they were all defective - cheap parts + poor design = tin can sound.

(It's not a bug. It's a FEATURE!)




You like me! You really like me!

RE: Hello? Why is this different than the Betamax wars?
a_nonamiss @ 6/3/2004 9:03:05 AM #
Hahaha...

Matsu****a

Nice contect filtering! Sorry - It's probably lack of sleep that makes that funny...

Arthur

Palm Pilot 1000 > Palm Pilot Professional > Palm III > Palm M100 > Sony Clié PEG-T415 > Palm T|T3

Future of Sony Handhelds

doctor__no @ 6/3/2004 12:37:04 AM #
While Sony seems to be holding short-term expansion of it's Clie in the US, it seems Sony has a slew of new mobiles coming out;

Including the U50 (1ghz, 20GB HDD, 512RAM, WinXP)
http://www.icube.us/Products/sonyux.htm

The P900:
http://www.mobileburn.com/review.jsp?Id=520

Vaio Pocket Video & HMP-A1
http://www.ehomeupgrade.com/archives/000388.php
http://www.gizmodo.com/archives/sonys-hmpa1-vaio-video-pocket-009970.php

Not to mention the PSP


IT would have been nice to see PalmSource get Sony to make a Palm version of the P900 for the US market. Guess that ain't happening now :(

J-Spec™ CLIES: they'll make you cry in 2004

;-(( @ 6/3/2004 3:13:47 AM #
It's a shame Sony pulls the plug just before they reached PDA perfection. As Alanis Morissette said in her song:

Isn't it ironic? Like a CLIE... on your wedding day. Like a free ride... when you're already late.

J-Spec™ CLIE + Sony Ericsson T608/T630 = the ultimate power user package in 2004.

Got J-Spec™?

Freedom of speech, baby. Gotta love it,

PalmSource stock being dumped by the boatload

;-(( @ 6/3/2004 5:05:17 AM #
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/hp?s=PSRC


Almost 2 million shares sold in the past 48 hours. (5 - 10 times the usual amount). I expect it will be closing for around $15 by the end of the week. PSRC for $10 - 12 may be a great buy that could double returns within a month or two. Very tempting. I'm surprised Seldom Visitor isn't here spreading FUD to try to drive the price down some more.

Freedom of speech, baby. Gotta love it,

David Nagel used to have 10 MILLION in PalmSource stock!
;-o @ 6/3/2004 8:51:15 AM #
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/mh?s=PSRC

Martha Stewart wants to know how much of that he's sold off recently...






You like me! You really like me!

RE: PalmSource stock being dumped by the boatload
;-o @ 6/3/2004 9:03:22 AM #
Nagel actually owns (owned?) 5% of PalmSource! Very slick, Davey. If only Sony had bought Palm outright he could have sold his shares for $30 a pop...




You like me! You really like me!

RE: PalmSource stock being dumped by the boatload
hoodoo @ 6/3/2004 10:44:17 AM #
ok all you face icon guys.

Don't forget for every seller there's a buyer, albeit at a lower price. Someone's buying the shares...I wonder who? Probably Ska.

RE: PalmSource stock being dumped by the boatload
Rome @ 6/3/2004 11:55:55 AM #
Face icons,

This is NOT the Yahoo Finance Board....take your stock comments elsewhere.


RE: PalmSource stock being dumped by the boatload
;-(( @ 6/4/2004 3:34:29 PM #
Don't forget for every seller there's a buyer, albeit at a lower price. Someone's buying the shares...I wonder who? Probably Ska.


Seldom Visitor and I will buy in once it hits $10 this month. Expect it to rebound briefly to $20, then nosedive to penny stock by the end of the year.


Freedom of speech, baby. Gotta love it,

And then there was one

mikecane @ 6/3/2004 8:55:58 AM #
palmOne and PalmSource re-merge by year's end. Why license when combined they can make zillions with the Treo? Jeff Hawkins to ascend to the throne again too?

Nagel is a CON ARTIST

Gekko @ 6/3/2004 9:49:49 AM #
RE: Nagel is ...
mikecane @ 6/3/2004 9:53:33 AM #
>>>He continues that there will be more "top-tier" Palm OS licensee soon. Nagel goes on to hint that he would consider another licensee, such as Samsung, talking a equity stake in the company, as Sony had done.

Soon it'll be like "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" -- a cart will come 'round with someone shouting, "Bring out your PalmOS dead!"

RE: Nagel is a CON ARTIST - one reason why Palm is broke
;-(( @ 6/4/2004 3:16:47 PM #
He deserves every dollar of those $11,000,000 in PalmSource stock he was given. I wonder how many outsourced support jobs could have been kept in the USA if Nagel hadn't been given that $11,000,000 bonus.

Palm could have paid 40 people $50,000 a year for the next 5 years with that money. What a pathetic waste. It's hard to feel sorry for Palm seeing the excesses that have gone on there. (Carl "The Truth" Yankowski: We're looking at you...)

Here's som more shocking info:

http://paycheck.demo.marklogic.com/company-execs.xqy?ticker=PLMO

Freedom of speech, baby. Gotta love it,

RE: Nagel is a CON ARTIST - one reason why Palm is broke
;-(( @ 6/4/2004 3:16:47 PM #
He deserves every dollar of those $11,000,000 in PalmSource stock he was given. I wonder how many outsourced support jobs could have been kept in the USA if Nagel hadn't been given that $11,000,000 bonus.

Palm could have paid 40 people $50,000 a year for the next 5 years with that money. What a pathetic waste. It's hard to feel sorry for Palm seeing the excesses that have gone on there. (Carl "The Truth" Yankowski: We're looking at you...)

Here's some more shocking info:

http://paycheck.demo.marklogic.com/company-execs.xqy?ticker=PLMO

Freedom of speech, baby. Gotta love it,

RE: Nagel is a CON ARTIST
;-(( @ 6/4/2004 10:51:45 PM #
When Michael Mace leaves Palm he should make sure he hires whoever Nagel's lawyer is to negotiate his settlement. (What did Yankowski get? 2,000,000?)

Mace should then go to work with Sony Ericsson as they refine their smartphones. Too bad we won't be seeing a P900 running PalmOS any time soon.

It's been quite a run for Palm, but it's starting to look like the party's over. From nothing to a market cap more than 3Com and now going back to nothing again. All in less than 8 years. Shades of the movie, Startup.com

Freedom of speech, baby. Gotta love it,

Michael Mace: What next?
;-o @ 6/5/2004 1:47:09 PM #
Mike, where will you be moving on to now? We've always enjoyed your honest communications and it will be too bad to see you leave Palm. Please keep us updated with what you're doing in the industry. I hope you accept a position at Sony Ericsson and manage to convince them to revamp their smartphones.




You like me! You really like me!

Dell Axim X30 Handheld 312MHz

Gekko @ 6/3/2004 10:07:32 AM #
Dell Axim X30 Handheld 312MHz
$249 and you get 312MHz XScale, 64MB RAM, 64MB ROM, SD Slot, Wi-Fi AND Bluetooth built-in, Removable Battery, and new Windows Mobile.

http://www1.us.dell.com/content/products/compare.aspx/pda?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&~ck=bt

http://www.brighthand.com/article/Dell_Axim_X30_Review?site=PPC



RE: Dell Axim X30 Handheld 312MHz
mikecane @ 6/3/2004 10:25:57 AM #
So what? It's still garbage!

Stop the recruiting. (Unless you've been savvy enough to get $$$$ out of Gates... or are you just dumb enough to do their work for FREE?)

RE: Dell Axim X30 Handheld 312MHz
Gekko @ 6/3/2004 10:50:37 AM #
Yes, Gates pays me a penny a post, you friggin goof.

RE: Dell Axim X30 Handheld 312MHz
mikecane @ 6/3/2004 11:10:28 AM #
>>>Yes, Gates pays me a penny a post, you friggin goof.

Geez, but you're overpaid! Shillboy.

RE: Dell Axim X30 Handheld 312MHz
Foo Fighter @ 6/4/2004 11:05:25 PM #
What? You're getting a whole penny? Bill only gives me .00034 of a cent per post. Time to renegotiate my contract.

-------------------------------
Contributing Editor, http://digitalmediathoughts.com
Editor, http://Pocketfactory.com

More on PDAs being dead

mikecane @ 6/3/2004 11:12:17 AM #
This excellent opinion piece at rohdesign makes sense now:

http://www.rohdesign.com/weblog/archives/000301.html

RE: More on PDAs being dead
Foo Fighter @ 6/3/2004 12:24:57 PM #
Mike Rohde...is that SuccessWizard?

-------------------------------
Contributing Editor, http://digitalmediathoughts.com
Editor, http://Pocketfactory.com
RE: More on PDAs being dead
rcartwright @ 6/4/2004 12:39:22 AM #
A good article to a point. The thing that all the "PC in a pack of cigarettes" folk seem to miss is that while you technically can make a PC that small, the input/output options are going to limit the useability. Short of "Star Trek" class voice imput/output you have to have a screen no bigger than say, a T3. You have to have either a thumbpad or handwritten imput (I am not considering the "virtual" keyboard out there as the harware to make it work frankly makes it more trouble than its worth IMHO) Say like a Palm T3. A net connection is key, again say like a T3. Well, the T3 is out there now and the T3 sized computer is vaporware. Which when you consider the powe and heat issues of a full PC that size might expalin why we do not dee them, they vaporize when they are turned on.

Life is a great adventure or nothing.
RE: More on PDAs being dead
mikecane @ 6/4/2004 1:45:52 PM #
Yeah -- and don't forget that T3 battery life. Just like -- an OQO's!

RE: More on PDAs being dead
rcartwright @ 6/4/2004 8:12:03 PM #
Argh! My English teacher would be shamed she ever taught me. One should never respond to posts after you have been up 16 hours.

Well at least you could understand it. Thanks to mike cane for not going after my grammer and spelling.

Life is a great adventure or nothing.

SEC to Charge 11 Former Symbol Execs with Fraud

Gekko @ 6/3/2004 11:43:42 AM #
More good news for PalmSource!

SEC to Charge 11 Former Symbol Execs with Fraud
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (news - web sites) said on Thursday it will charge 11 former Symbol Technologies Inc. (NYSE:SBL - news) executives with securities fraud, stemming from a probe of the company's accounting practices.

The maker of bar codes and handheld computers will pay $37 million in penalties to settle accounting and securities fraud charges, the SEC said in a statement.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=569&ncid=738&e=1&u=/nm/20040603/tc_nm/tech_symbol_sec_dc



RE: SEC to Charge 11 Former Symbol Execs with Fraud
mikecane @ 6/3/2004 11:46:33 AM #
You've gone over the edge now. Are you killing time until your Dull PPC arrives or what?

This really has no impact on PS unless Symbol folds, which I don't see any inkling of in this piece.

RE: SEC to Charge 11 Former Symbol Execs with Fraud
;-(( @ 6/4/2004 1:14:26 AM #
You've gone over the edge now.

Perhaps the most ironic sentence ever uttered in the history of mankind.

Freedom of speech, baby. Gotta love it,

RE: SEC to Charge 11 Former Symbol Execs with Fraud
mikecane @ 6/4/2004 1:43:58 PM #
>>>Perhaps the most ironic sentence ever uttered in the history of mankind.

Every weekend the staff at your institution takes off and the temps forget to give you your meds and we are inundated with your drivel here at PIC. Now it's weekdays too. What, the staff is on strike now?

Caney: heed the signs.
;-(( @ 6/4/2004 3:05:47 PM #
Your pressured speech, thousands of posts at every Palm site around the world, the 8 hours a day you spend reading and posting to Palm sites...

It all points to an illness untreated. Get back on your lithium again, Mike. Why do you think your last boyfriend left you a couple years ago?

By the way, since you obviously will never again buy another PalmOS PDA, please stop spending an hour a day playing with new PDAs in the stores. Your existence is no doubt annoying salespeople and wasting the time of real customers.

Freedom of speech, baby. Gotta love it,

RE: SEC to Charge 11 Former Symbol Execs with Fraud
abosco @ 6/4/2004 6:04:49 PM #
Ugly Face, every single time I come to this place and read your annoying banter, I realize how lucky dead people are.

-Bosco
NX80v + Wifi + BT + T616
RE: SEC to Charge 11 Former Symbol Execs with Fraud
;-(( @ 6/4/2004 10:47:02 PM #
It's touching to see your feeble attempts to defend your father figure, Baby Bosco. Given Mr Cane's limited faculties, he'll need all the help you can muster.

Freedom of speech, baby. Gotta love it,

Baby B.
;-(( @ 6/4/2004 11:19:21 PM #
And Baby B, you should do the world a favor and join all those "lucky" people. ASAP.

Freedom of speech, baby. Gotta love it,

RE: SEC to Charge 11 Former Symbol Execs with Fraud
mikecane @ 6/5/2004 10:26:28 AM #
>>>Your pressured speech, thousands of posts at every Palm site around the world, the 8 hours a day you spend reading and posting to Palm sites...

They really must find a med that *works* on you. You are hallucinating. But then, reading your weekend bouts of hypergraphia here, you always have been. And I have to admit I was wrong: Your mother actually *did* find a coat hanger in time when she was carrying you. But, like you, she was too stupid to figure out how to use it to expel you.

Caney: Get help. PLEASE.
;-o @ 6/5/2004 12:45:57 PM #
MC: you obviously lack the insight into your illness, but it's not your fault. You have a "chemical imbalance". We can help you BUT YOU MUST SEE YOUR PHYSICIAN.

How many posts have you made to Palminfocenter this week? 50? How many in the past three years? 5,000? More? How many posts to other Palm sites? Do you even have a job? Really. Do you work for a living or are you spending your entire life in your dingy New York basement apartment surrounded by moldy pizza boxes, posting day after day? Do you know what the word "obsession" means? How about "hypomania"? Or "flight of ideas"? "Pressured speech"?

Go back to your physician. The lithium helped you last year and it may control your behavior again if you remain compliant with therapy. PLEASE.




You like me! You really like me!

Mike Cane: 2462 posts to Palminfocenter and counting... WOW!
;-o @ 6/5/2004 2:58:34 PM #
I knew you were ill, but posting to a single site almost 2,500 times? Wow. Add in your posts to other Palm fanboy site, posts to various forum sections, your trolling posts at PPC sites and you're easily at over 10,000 posts in the past few years. EVEN YOU MUST SEE THAT IS NOT NORMAL, MIKE.

While initially I used to laugh at the things you wrote and asumed your online persona was merely tongue in cheek, now I'm worried that you're really sick. No sane individual would continue posting the way you do day in day out. The paranoia ("Why is Sony doing this to ME!!!!"), incessant screeching, personal attacks, etc. all point to an inescapable conclusion: you need to seek professional help immediately, Mike. Immediately.




You like me! You really like me!

RE: SEC to Charge 11 Former Symbol Execs with Fraud
mikecane @ 6/5/2004 3:14:15 PM #
Look at the cheap stalker. We can only GUESS how many of the posts that turn stomachs here are yours. You're too goddammed cowardly to use your real name. So obsessed with me, aren't you? Poor poor poor sick sick sick child, Sphincterface. What's this, your FIFTH iconic handle? You really DO suffer from Multiple Personality Disorder -- and the worst part is, ALL of your personalities are sick.

MC: Please have someone READ this to you. PLEASE.
;-o @ 6/5/2004 3:21:49 PM #
I knew you were ill, but posting to a single site almost 2,500 times? Wow. Add in your posts to other Palm fanboy site, posts to various forum sections, your trolling posts at PPC sites and you're easily at over 10,000 posts in the past few years. EVEN YOU MUST SEE THAT IS NOT NORMAL, MIKE.

While initially I used to laugh at the things you wrote and asumed your online persona was merely tongue in cheek, now I'm worried that you're really sick. No sane individual would continue posting the way you do day in day out. The paranoia ("Why is Sony doing this to ME!!!!"), incessant screeching, personal attacks, etc. all point to an inescapable conclusion: you need to seek professional help immediately, Mike. Immediately.






You like me! You really like me!

Facey on "normality of posting" & "being sane"
Winter_ @ 6/5/2004 3:30:20 PM #
FFFF's Event Horizon
Winter_ @ 6/5/2004 3:35:20 PM #
I'm waiting for the moment when you'll eventually start ranting against one of your other personalities and get into such a deadlock of postulates, insults and hysterical ass-holism that the very fabric of existence will make you to finally implode into a turd.

...Or I'm late?

RE: SEC to Charge 11 Former Symbol Execs with Fraud
mikecane @ 6/5/2004 3:37:02 PM #
He put up the SAME post TWICE. Didn't I say this would be his weekend of manic hypergraphia?

I hope his docs will give him electroconvulsive therapy. Sphincterface is just too far gone for SSRIs, MAOIs, and the Cyclines...

RE: SEC to Charge 11 Former Symbol Execs with Fraud
Winter_ @ 6/5/2004 3:44:20 PM #
Perhaps they could lobotomize and put there a CF slot? Would he be quieter?
RE: SEC to Charge 11 Former Symbol Execs with Fraud
abosco @ 6/5/2004 7:19:09 PM #
Anybody got a fork? If I can't stab him with it, at the very least I can gouge my eyes out so I don't have to read any more of his ****.

Face, every other day you come to this place, making double and even triple posts on how Mike is 'sick', as you spend hours thinking up witty remarks and pretend how being a Biostatistician is somehow a job that gives you authority over somebody, yet you fail to realize every time you sign onto the internet that unless you amass the power of building a website to attract millions of page views per month and hundreds of comments to stories and decide who gets to keep their comments posted and who is just a rambling moron, you will constantly come to the internet pennyless, pointless, worthless, and lack the one thing that makes any difference on the internet - knowledge. Picking a fight with someone in a group that's been here longer than you have is like painting a damn target on your back, you indolent. Of course you're going to be the target of "censorship" if the text being "censored" is constantly trying to nit-pick Mike Cane's nitpicking. We know Mike Cane has an obsession with trying to find what will suit him well - you don't need to point anything out to us. Doing so will bore us, tire us, annoy us - even anger us. Leave, before you join the ranks of those permanently banned from this place.

-Bosco
NX80v + Wifi + BT + T616

RE: SEC to Charge 11 Former Symbol Execs with Fraud
rcartwright @ 6/6/2004 2:05:28 AM #
Well said abosco

Life is a great adventure or nothing.

It's over

SaabCaptain @ 6/5/2004 8:16:02 PM #
I have owned a Pilot 5000, PalmPilot Pro, Palm IIIc, Palm V, Clie 605c, Palm m505, Tungsten T, Tungsten E and others.

Innovation died LONG ago. We have been promised a new revoultionary OS complete with multithread and NEW GUI for almost 4 YEARS now. 2 years ago we were promised it would be out in 6-12 months. The grand unveiling of OS 5.0 (Cobalt) was back in January about 13 months after the promise and it turns out that there is NO new GUI and they are saving that for the next release, due 12 months after Cobalt. Now in June there IS NO SIGN OF COBALT handhelds.

While I am sure OS 5.0 units will arrive this year they will arrive nearly 10-12 months after the grand unveiling of the OS which is pretty neutered by the lack of a new GUI anyway. The new OS will be 6.0 with a new GUI and we would be LUCKY to have it 18 months FROM NOW, in late 2005.

It is over. PalmSource dropped the ball. I don't know if with better managament or better programmers it could have been different, perhaps not... but the PDA reached a peak and now the world of smartphones is passing the PDA by. Instead of offering compeling new features we got MP3 and better games. Sad, sad, sad.

The real new "Palm" is due in 2005-2006 and sadly I doubt many will be around to care.

owned: Pilot 5000, PalmPilot Pro, Palm V, Casio E-11, IIIc, m505, Sony T615, Tungsten T, iPaq 1945, Tungsten E.

RE: It's over
SeldomVisitor @ 6/6/2004 6:19:45 AM #
I'm not sure about the OS numbering you're using - I think it's skewed by 1 - but that's an insignificant detail...

However...

"Cobalt" was introduced in late(st) December 2003. Somewhat later the CEO of PalmSource was asked "Anyone selling a Cobalt device" and he unambiguously said he thought it was unlikely that a Cobalt device would be introduced prior to 2005 simply due to the software development time necessary (not to mention hardware). As a (very) experienced software person (20+ years post-graduate school) I'd say that's a spot-on thought...

But...

There is little evidence ANYONE is developing a Cobalt device other than PalmOne (*); as noted by someone else somewhere (maybe here, maybe another message board) there have been no leaks, no tradeshow hints, NOTHING to suggest The Next Cool PalmOS Thang is on its way soon.

======

(*) We got a fairly good hint that PalmOne was getting out of the software development biz when the CFO, in answer to a fairly straight-forward question sort of like:

== Is it PalmOne's policy to develop proprietary
== modifications to PalmOS in-house?

answered:

== It has been.

rather than the perfectly-sufficient:

== Yes.

that would suggest a continuing thing.

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