HandEra Ends Palm OS Product Line

Come on, we all knew they weren't really going to come out with another Palm. They had a two year head start and sat on it. First with a high resolution screen, dual expansion, real speaker, and everything Palm OS 5 handhelds are just now getting credit for, while HandEra had it so long ago.

Alright, so anyway, I'll agree all the way that PalmSource needs a new licensee. Enough with these dinky niche players. Great, a watch, an Asian device, lovely, but I want something that competes with Palm and Sony. PS said they were going to announce a new licensee at the developers seminar May 5-6, but I'll guarantee you it'll be another niche player. I mean, they said they were going to announce a major licensee a few months ago and who did announce they licensed? Fossil. Oh, that's colossal.

Right now, Dell would be an awesome licensee. Even Toshiba, at this point. We're too diversified at this point. PalmSource is staving off commoditization, which is good, but the result is no PLAIN device. Where is the OS 5 200 MHz Palm with a 320x480 screen with virtual graffiti? The Z71 may be close, but even that comes with a camera. I don't know, maybe I'm the only one who sees it like this, but either way, Palm and Sony aren't enough competition to each other. We need one more. Period.

-Bosco
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No, you're not. It's interesting that while Palm "protects" its licensees, it's Pocket PC that's getting big names. Dell, and now JVC(!). Don't ask me how all of them will make $$$, but they all think they can, so have at it!

And now this:

http://www.palminfocenter.com/view_Story.asp?ID=2754

10) Palm will shift its focus to the high-end consumer and businesses, to prop up profits. Sony will address multimedia for consumers, Handspring will go after mainstream consumers with new Springboard-free Palm OS PDAs and its Treo. Newbies and the low-enders will snap up the super-cheap Asian Dragonballed versions. HandEra will get lost in the shuffle.

-- well, I didn't forsee the Zire and its rousing success. And Handspring is doing worse than I expected. Still...

Ah, well, it's all academic, isn't it?

I have been wondering about this for a while now. are all of these companies willing to lose money (they all have it to spare) in order to make in-roads into a marketspace that they believe will eventually make $$$? maybe their all making $$$ now - though i can't imagine with the PPC marketshare growing so slowly over the last couple of yrs and it being so crowded with big players. By comparison - Palm SG and Sony should be able to rake in cash. Why wouldn't Dell want in on a much bigger marketshare? Hell - they could do both and double their PDA sales within months.

It would be cool to have a iPod/Palm OS type device, if it could be done. Instead of buying memory cards you would just use the HD.

I would buy one. Could they make a color one to sell for $500 to $600? Maybe, since the iPod costs $400 and the Sony SJ22 costs $200.

And yet they won't *be* profitable if they can't get device feature set to where the consumer wants it. The platform needs PocketPC ilk licensees because the current big names in the platform, can't consistently get the total package right (including all of, software, hardware, API's, SDK's, support, feature set, and price-point).

It's a sad comment on Palm and Sony when I'm far more likely to keep using a now discontinued Palm PDA, then any of their "current" models. A new licensee with their head on straight, would seem to be the only hope I have of staying in this platform. There will come a point when vast application support won't be enough to outweight lack of feature-set, and driver support expansion options.

Not a single PalmOS licensee can boast the expansion support options, in varied and many brands, and price points, with OS level driver support, than HandEra. And browse through handera.com (while it remains up in current form) puts other licensees to shame.

"PalmOS is not doomed without Handera and Handspring. Far from it. And Handera was never a major player. Their demise will go unnoticed."

Only if the licensees are clever enough to continue to use HandEra Services for OEM ideas. Or perhaps only by those, like you, with blinders on who fail to recognize the true roots of the current visible "innovations" by Palm and Sony. The platform likely would not look today, as it does, without HandEra. To give Sony credit for HandEra influenced features is laughable. And that's not even begining to count the stuff that didn't quite make it to being released over the past couple years.

yup. sadly it will go unnoticed. just like all their products did. i owned and loved a handera 330 until i broke it and replaced it with a sony sj20 which is definitely nice, and functional for my needs...but i still miss my HE330 sometimes.

what people probably dont realize is the entire handera company was comprised of about 50 people. they made a pretty significant dent in the "palm history books" for being such a small company. like the article says, alot of the things like expansion, dual expansion, software graffiti, etc were ALL done by TRG/HandERA and adopted by sony and palm.

IMO they released a superior B&W device that didnt have enough brand recognition power. theres all those other licensee reasons and whatnot too...ahwell.

It's probably Garmin.

-- education? military? healthcare? toaster oven?

Oh My God! We're finally going to have Red Dwarf's Talkie Toaster!! I have longed to be annoyed minute after minute, hour after hour, day after day, by a cute little toaster that CONSTANTLY asks, "Would you like some toast?" (Well, at least it sometimes asks if you'd like a bagel...)

i loved that show:)

I find that odd because I thought one of PalmSource's recently announced goals was to support a large number of diversely featured devices to a wide variety of markets. I can't remember the exact wording, but I think it was in a press release. Apparently they are now only interested in the big players who can pony up a ton of cash.

Yep. It really seemed like HandEra basically sat on an OS 4 upgrade for the 330 that was essentially ready for release. The only real reason I can see for it is that the price PalmSource wanted was out of reach. I did see a post elsewhere where someone thought the number of individual device licenses PalmSource is requiring was something huge. That would also fit with eliminating small innovators and independents. Hard to say for sure without knowing all the facts.