Comments on: PalmSource Licenses Palm OS to QTech

That is true Token. Also, another thing that cell phones offer a telco is the total elimination of a party line. POTS does not only take to long to install but also there is widespread piracy of phone lines and long distance accounts that would make anyone at 2600 give respect and admiration.

Cell phone cloning is mostly dead now with the new standards and bonding of the low level firmware developers at the source of internal development. Thus, you have more reliable billing and service activation and deactivation from a more secure and central source.

One advise to PalmSource, have someone independantly audit the manufacturing so you get every nickel from the OS license agreement. Getting burned from that other overseas manufacturer who never paid out all the royalities due is a hard lesson I'm sure you have learned by now.

India has a higher proportion of post graduate educated people than the US. The Indian economy is booming (as is China's). Thinking that anything happening west of Hawai'i or east of Boston being a blip on the radar is a shame. As the PDA market slows down in the US (and Europe), the Chinese and Indian markets are starting to grow rapidly as their economies, and more particularly middle to upper class professionals with a higher disposable income, increase at a rate that is outstrippping the US.

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

What makes you think HP is innovative? Have you seen their new products? Nothing that hasn't been done before, they're basically replacing their year-old models (that were fairly innovative) with boxy ugly bricks.

I think that if PalmOne released a T/E with a 320X480 screen, at least 32MB of RAM, 312MHz processor or better, SD slot (maybe 2?), bluetooth (or wifi, or both), they'd have a winner. the PUC may be pushing it, but I'd definitely buy that model with or without the PUC. I'd just buy it sooner if it had it. List price: $250-350.

-->Visor Deluxe-->Palm m125-->Palm m505-->Ipaq 1945-->Tungsten E-->Zire 21-->Zire 71, Ipaq 1945

Not sure if any of the other mainstream hardware companies would try to take on little old palmOne. The great and mighty Sony gave it its best shot and, well, they capitulated.

However, I agree that a company like HP could really make a difference - just imagine what a great combination HP quality + Palm OS would make. Don't hold your breath, though - HP are enthralled by the Dark Side.

TokenUser, I don't know if it possible to discern any consistent plan in what Sony was doing towards the end. I guess, based on the kind of units they released in the last year or so, they must have been targeted buyers who had awefully big coat pockets and a lot of money to waste on multimedia gimmicks.

Sony's strategy (if there was one) was deeply flawed. Rather than focussing on customer needs and deliverying products that better met those needs, Sony seemed to be obsessed with trying to impress with gadgetry. They seemed to be committed to pushing the boundaries of what could be done, at a technical level, rather than exercising judgement as to whether this so-called "innovation" was actually something which would be useful in the real world. In reality, "innovation" means finding better answers; not merely doing something for the sake of impressing technology buffs.

I shouldn't be too critical. Early on, Sony tried to take on Palm (and Hanspring) at their own game. They were making headway. But Palm and Handspring were in the middle of a price war at the time. After suffering a lot of red ink, Sony tried to do something different; they tried to differentiate their products so that they would not have to slug it out on the basis of price alone. Sony were right to change tack - they just took the wrong one.

I hope Sony re-enter the market at some stage and make me eat my words. A great company like Sony could make a real mark on the PDA market, if only they take it seriously.

Frankly, with this happening, I can see Sony's glory days of the Walkman and other hard innovations are behind them. Like other giants, they have institutionalized their strategy that got them to where they are. However, that strategy isn't meeting the current market.

Sony could have ruled the Palm device business if they aimed for more of a wider market than the handsome margin botique focus they had with their Palm devices. Also, with Sony, you never ever know the underlying currents of their operations unless you spend a lot of time around Ginza and know Japanese well. So who knows what their real focus is concerning this.