Palm Clarifies Its Support for the Palm OS

...for spinning gold into straw, Ed.

Thanks for the extra clarification of something that should really have been obvious to anyone really paying attention: Palm's commitment to Palm OS.

I think Colligan is probably more referring less to posts that have happened here than to some gnashing of teeth that took place on the Palm Entrepreneur's Forum, but in any case it's good to be really clear about this stuff, especially if you're going to be slinking around in the bushes at night with the Redmond boys.

David Beers
Pikesoft Mobile Computing
Software Everywhere blog
www.pikesoft.com/blog

First, big thanks to Palm Infocenter for very engaging news and discussions since I began lurking here over a year ago. Really good stuff.

This letter does not address the uncertainly that is swirling around the tech beehive. Does Palm have a vision or strategy for the future of the Palm platform vs. a Windows Treo?

"[The Treo] in the Windows Mobile platform is all about growing the Treo market. We want to deliver the Palm experience on Windows Mobile."

This could be impossible since Palm has very little input into Windows Mobile. There is a limit to what can be done, since any modification will break compatibility with the existing WinMob ecosystem. A Palm skin over Windows Mobile may not be very much, but we will have to hope there's more. What's left is the solid hardware, but that's a bit like Compaq and Gateway.

"We have a rich product roadmap of Palm OS-based handheld computers, mobile managers AND Treo smartphones that we intend to deliver."

Wonderful, but not a very strong vision for developers to stick with Palm. He makes this very point in the letter -- how extensive the Windows infrastructure is.

The common notion around the tech world is that Palm has gone to windows and this letter is not strong enough to change this reputation. It's actually a strong sales point for shifting over to WinMob.

Palm is in transition from being Apple to being Compaq -- a hardware developer for Windows Mobile. That being said, I enjoy my Treo 650 immensely and will continue with the Palm side of things as long as possible.

Once you let the Monster in the door, it will devour everything.

> "...I'm concerned by the number of posts I've read that suggest that Palm's support of Palm OS is either wavering or short-lived. It is neither..."

Hilarious! The microsuck FUD machine has been cranking on *overtime* trying to spin the wince-Treo into something other than an admission of failure by microsuck! :)

Of couse, if there was a *single* wince licensee in the entire cosmos that could match the Treo, microsuck would have dumped their cash there, instead of dropping millions on a direct competitor. :)

And now all that shill overtime has gone down the tubes, wasted. What a shame. :)

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"People who like M$ products tend to be insecure crowd-following newbies lacking in experience and imagination."

Here's the statement as it would appear if the B.S. was removed by translating it from B.S. -> Truth at Babelfish (http://babelfish.altavista.com/):

Dear Palm Developer,
I'm writing to you today because I'm concerned by the number of developers I've read that are pi$$ed off because they realize that Palm's support of Palm OS is both wavering and short-lived.

I thought I had made this perfectly clear when I sold the OS down the river as Bill Gates stood by smirking during my embarassing announcement on Sept. 26th that we'll be focusing our line of Treo smartphones to showcase the one that businesses likely will prefer: Windows Mobile. It's all about milking the Treo market as long as we can while spending as few development dollars as possible. Business wants Microsoft and we have previously failed to attract business customers because of our own lack of a clear corporation-focused strategy, so the Windows Mobile Treo is a cheap, simple "fix". We like cheap + simple. This is a zero-sum game! We will not be able to support PalmOS 5, PalmLinux AND Windows Mobile all at the same time, so we're jumping on the Windows Mobile bandwagon... at least until we find out if PalmSource can pull off a Hail Mary with PalmLinux.

This market is in its infancy and we've blown the huge lead Handspring had handed to us on a silver platter 2 years ago. At the same time, Microsoft offered us a cheap, easy "solution" in exchange for our souls. Mr. Gates now is the proud new owner of our souls.

We had a chance to appeal to business over the years and become the de facto standard. We blew it. Repeatedly. Now we have sold out in the name of a quick buck. Deal with it!

We have a confused product roadmap of Palm OS-based handheld computers, mobile managers AND Treo smartphones that we can't deliver. Our Palm OS customer loyalty is sinking quickly, but we intend to continue to milk that loyalty with weak Palm OS-based products until even the Palm fanatics recoil in disgust. We have sold more than 30 million Palm OS-based products over the years, but the fad is over and we're playing out the string and going through the motions so we can keep that gravy train going as long as possible. In May we extended our license for Palm OS, giving us the right to continue to make and market Palm OS-based products until 2010 because we thought we could be clever and create a poison pill that would discourage any competitors from buying PalmSource. We've been waiting to buy back PalmSource from the day we sold it and even fronted them $30 million to keep it out of the hands of shareholders. But that all blew up in our face thanks to those a-holes at Motorola being so desperate for an OS.

So, I'd like to ask you to look at our Windows Mobile news as proof that we have no loyalty to users or developers. We have no intention of continuing to support our Palm OS developers or to encourage the expansion of the weakening array of consumer and enterprise applications and peripherals for Palm OS. We're shocked Access has initiated the purchase of PalmSource but at least Access isn't as threatening to us as Motorola. Plus, we put that clever poison pill into the PalmSource contract a few months ago that guarantees us PalmOS as long as it will matter. By the time our contract expires, people will have REAL desktop OS variants on their handhelds and PalmOS will be obsolete.

I believe that milking our starving assets dry and flogging a moribund horse is what Palm has always done best. Also we're good at being arrogant, wasting money, missing OBVIOUS market trends/opportunities and screwing developers at whim. I hope you will agree.

Regards,

"Baghdad" Ed Colligan
Palm, Inc. president and CEO

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Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.
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The Palm eCONomy = Communism™

The Great Palm Swindle: http://www.palminfocenter.com/comment_view.asp?ID=7864#108038

NetFrontLinux - the next major cellphone OS?: http://www.palminfocenter.com/comment_view.asp?ID=8060#111823

Can't wait for the new Treo phones. Just like Ed says--some people have to have wince. Windows is the de facto business standard. Personally, I would use my old m500 before I went to any wince device--maybe even my Vx. Now that the CEO addressed our greatest fears (demise of the OS) we can sit back and wait for some good Treos to roll out. Zire 22 form with phone and SD card would be KILLER!! Palm is obviously not dead yet. Best news I've heard on PIC for a long time.

When has Palm ever read forum posts???

The world will end in 2006. Just as it was predicted in the bible along with the release of Microsoft Longhorn.... :p