Comments on: 2008 - The Palm OS Year in Review

Palm 2008With a little more than a week to go until CES 2009 and arguably the most critical release in the company's history, we cannot overlook Palm's small but still news-worthy contributions to legacy Palm OS Garnet users during 2008. Regardless of what happens in 2009, for all its shortcomings OS 5.x Garnet remains a tried and true mobile OS that still enjoys a fair amount of developer, carrier, and user support. Let's take a few moments to review the most important events from Palm in what was unquestionably a transition year of carryover products and mild tweaks to existing devices.
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One significant omission in review

hgoldner @ 12/29/2008 12:27:43 PM # Q
Don't forget one of the most significant landmarks of 2008. Colligan's recent announcement that Palm would not manufacture any more PDA's -- only smartphones.

That marks the end of the pure 'Palm Pilot' line.

Harold

RE: One significant omission in review
SeldomVisitor @ 12/29/2008 12:40:04 PM # Q
To take that a little further, Colligan suggested (vaguely) that the next =consumer= devices would be Nova-based as well.

RE: One significant omission in review
hkklife @ 12/29/2008 6:17:52 PM # Q
The article was actually written a few days prior to the most recent Q2 report + comments from Ed C. and co. Ryan just put it on the backburner over the holidays due to everyone having family obligations etc. We can stick in another line or two summarizing the events from the 2nd half of December to the article, no problem.

Pilot 1000->Pilot 5000->PalmPilot Pro->IIIe->Vx->m505->T|T->T|T2->T|C->T|T3->T|T5->Zodiac 2->TX->Verizon Treo 700P->Verizon Treo 755p
Reply to this comment

Slooooooooooooooooooooooow

freakout @ 12/29/2008 12:59:35 PM # Q
It's been a long year, that's for sure. The most exciting device Palm put out wasn't even "Palm-powered" - although at least the Treo Pro finally saw them getting their hardware act together.

A Nova-powered version is something I'm very much looking forward to in '09, along with a nice variety of hardware designs. At the very least, we should see Palm put out their first large-screened phone.

Reply to this comment

Is this a joke?

mikecane @ 12/29/2008 1:07:53 PM # Q
>>>OS 5.x Garnet remains a tried and true mobile OS that still enjoys a fair amount of developer, carrier, and user support.

Talk about fanboyism!

Or should "fair" be read as "It's not dead yet."

Neither are zombies, but they still STINK.

RE: Is this a joke?
hgoldner @ 12/29/2008 2:51:40 PM # Q
I can't agree that Garnet stinks. It gets the job done, which is more than I can say for loads of operating systems.

Harold



RE: Is this a joke?
mikecane @ 12/29/2008 5:35:51 PM # Q
Obviously, I don't care what you think.

And if there is such a big developer base still around, why isn't there a *single* eBook reading program that can do *ePub* files on it?

Meanwhile, Stanza has over 600,000 downloads for the iPod Touch/iPod, can do *ePub*, *and* just added Fictionwise eReader compatibility.

Until Garnet has ePub, it remains a 3rd-rate POS. And I don't mean PalmOS.

RE: Is this a joke?
hkklife @ 12/29/2008 6:03:21 PM # Q
Me? Fanboyism? Please. Just because I still maintain that Garnet is the tried & test comfortable old shoe of mobile OSes does NOT mean that Centro Claus came to visit me for Christmas and turned me into a Palm Apologist with some magical fairy dust. As long as you don't want to do multimedia whiz-bang, fancy GPS navigating, wi-fi etc., Garnet still DOES the PIM essentials faster & better than anything else.

Yes, "fair" is a polite way of saying "it's dying but it ain't quite dead yet". Regardless, the zombiefied Garnet DOES still enjoy SOME developer support which is more than the Treo Pro can tout. Palm's sole Palm OS device, the Centro, still has the widest availability of any current Palm smartphone (regardless of OS).

Pilot 1000->Pilot 5000->PalmPilot Pro->IIIe->Vx->m505->T|T->T|T2->T|C->T|T3->T|T5->Zodiac 2->TX->Verizon Treo 700P->Verizon Treo 755p

RE: Is this a joke?
mikecane @ 12/29/2008 6:24:44 PM # Q
>>>Centro Claus came to visit me for Christmas and turned me into a Palm Apologist with some magical fairy dust.

Is that some sort of slap at gays?

(Heh. Trying to get you picketed!)

Well see, if you'd mentioned the PIM part, you'd have had no argument from me.

PIMs are still world-class and why I stick with the accursed LifeDrive.

RE: Is this a joke?
hotpaw4 @ 12/29/2008 7:29:17 PM # Q
Garnet does not stink; it's just ancient in terms of technology years. I mostly use and develop for my iPhone now, but I still prefer using a few PalmOS PIM apps over anything I've yet found in the iPhone App Store.

.

RE: Is this a joke?
hkklife @ 12/29/2008 8:44:36 PM # Q
No jabs at anyone from any walk of life other than whomever gave that silly Palm ad campaign the green light. Every $ available at Palm should be thrown at finishing/perfecting/starting work on Nova. Smoke & mirrors marketing and producing expensive primetime TV spots for a fast-fading, bottom-feeder product (Centro) is not the way to blaze a succcesful trail into '09.

You know, come to think of it...wouldn't it be better to jump dump the tragic LifeDrive (had you listened to my warnings in '05 you'd have realized that is a CURSED product!) and replace it with a much slimmer, swifter, reliable and utterly more useful TX instead?

And, had you paid attention to some my past ramblings, you'd know that I CONTINUE to espouse the continued robustness-nay, the continued EXCELLENCE-of Palm's PIM apps. It's sad (but also quite telling) when a Pilot 1000 from 1996 still crushes an iPhone or BB Bold/Storm etc for day to day PIM functionality and usability. Someone somewhere should award some kind of lifetime achievement award to Rob Haitani and the rest of the gang that came up with the initial Palm OS core PIM apps.

Pilot 1000->Pilot 5000->PalmPilot Pro->IIIe->Vx->m505->T|T->T|T2->T|C->T|T3->T|T5->Zodiac 2->TX->Verizon Treo 700P->Verizon Treo 755p

RE: Is this a joke?
BaalthazaaR @ 12/30/2008 6:55:48 AM # Q
Speaking of Mr. Haitani, what ever happened to him? What's he been up to? Haven't heard a mention of him since the good old days.
RE: Is this a joke?
Ronin @ 12/30/2008 7:32:53 AM # Q
Just out of curiousity, what other mobile OS has support for ePub? Making support of ePub your bellwether for 3rd rate POSness, sounds like rabid iPhone fanboyism to me.

In the Spirit of Umoja,
Ronin
RE: Is this a joke?
Gekko @ 12/30/2008 9:16:09 AM # Q

Haitani has moved on to vitamin D where he's waiting for another dot com bubble which doesn't look like it's going to happen any time soon.

he was great for the simple GUI for Palm OS, his "keep it simple - watch out for feature creep - don't try to do too much with a small device" mantra might have helped keep PalmOS in the dark ages.

RE: Is this a joke?
mikecane @ 12/30/2008 2:21:56 PM # Q
>>>Just out of curiousity, what other mobile OS has support for ePub? Making support of ePub your bellwether for 3rd rate POSness, sounds like rabid iPhone fanboyism to me.

No, it's *eBook* advocacy.

ePub is what the major publishers have settled on. eReader and MobiPocket are now doomed legacy formats that will eventually go to Electron Hell. Just not as fast as I'd like.

Yeah, Haitani really needs some damned Lifetime Achievement award for the PIMs. Or maybe he'll come up with something even more remarkable for Nova at his startup.

I'll get a TX when Palm drops the price to $99 - or less. It has no higher value to me than what I've sunk into the LifeDrive.

RE: Is this a joke?
LiveFaith @ 12/30/2008 4:10:52 PM # Q
Claus?

I hate to say it, but 88,000 fans can't be wrong. JAPCF! (just another pop culture frustration)

Pat Horne

RE: Is this a joke?
hgoldner @ 12/30/2008 5:26:04 PM # Q
With all due respect, mikecane, if your assessment of Garnet is based solely upon the ability (or your claimed lack thereof) to handle a certain format of epubs, that's just, well, ridiculous.

It's like evaluating an automobile based solely upon what kind of stereo system it has.

Garnet does loads more than a Kindle -- there's a great epub handler, or an iphone, there's another one does. You can't seriously expect us to believe that this is all you want to do with these devices, can you? Dude, you need to open a book.

Harold

RE: Is this a joke?
hkklife @ 12/30/2008 5:46:19 PM # Q
Harold;

Good point. And if we CONTINUE to use ePub as the benchmark by which all mobile devices are measured....well, I imagine it'd be easier to shoehorn ePub support into Garnet than it would be to get a couple thousand apps + media players + games etc. onto the Kindle or the Sony Reader. I think the Sony in particular is a fine e-book reader (the Kindle...not so much so) but they are dedicated devices and shouldn't be part of an apples to oranges comparison like that with PDAs/smartphones.



Pilot 1000->Pilot 5000->PalmPilot Pro->IIIe->Vx->m505->T|T->T|T2->T|C->T|T3->T|T5->Zodiac 2->TX->Verizon Treo 700P->Verizon Treo 755p

RE: Is this a joke?
ChiA @ 12/30/2008 6:21:20 PM # Q
I can't agree that Garnet stinks. It gets the job done, which is more than I can say for loads of operating systems.

NO, Garnet doesn't get the job done fanboy.

It's well known how Garnet was incapable of handling simultaneous wi-fi and phone connections or multi-tasking or umts 3G.

Palm wasn't able to produce a Palm OS smartphone with wifi or umts 3G due to Garnet's limitations.

It was this inability that pushed me from Palm OS to a WinMob phone that offered the "yes we can" approach.

I was initially skeptical about a smartphone's ability to multitask; I've since found that being able to discuss something on the phone whilst simultaneously referring to a website and/or email on the smartphone to be practical and useful.

I wasn't keen on Windows Mobile but it does what I ask of it and all of what I used to do on Garnet, I find I don't even need Styletap.

So please don't tell me how Garnet gets the job done.
Garnet is way behind other current mobile operating systems in ability.

RE: Is this a joke?
hkklife @ 12/30/2008 7:10:49 PM # Q
To be totally fair....the CDMA Centro, since it DOES support EVDO Rev. 0, is still quite capable, though it would have only another 6-9 months TOPS to be viable on the market (and that's being generous) as a low-end smartphone based on the criteria of the "average" consumer targeted by the carriers. The GSM Centro, EDGE and all, is indeed fading fast and only really suited as a cheap freebie offering or as an ultra-cheap unlocked device for those needing to support legacy Palm OS apps.

More so than anything else, we are hearing continued rumblings that carriers don't want to have to support so many different OSes and dumping Palm OS (definitely Garnet and possibly just passing on Nova) is looking like a more and more realistic scenario with each passing day. What I think should be a justifiable concern for Palm is an utter lack of carrier interest--what if Nova DOES get completed on time and is totally gee-whiz great, stable, and all that we hope for it to be....but no carriers bite? That'll be the kiss of death for Palm.

P.S. IMO, this (not coverage or pricing) hodgepodge of carrier exclusives & CDMA vs. GSM foolishness remains the biggest problem with the fragmented domestic US wireless market: If I want handset X that is available only on carrier Y and I have carrier Z, I simply cannot have it unless I jump ship and/or sign another contract. I'd LIKE to have the coverage & flexibility of a GSM device but there is simply no getting around the fact of the superior CDMA coverage in most of the United States, especially in rural areas.



Pilot 1000->Pilot 5000->PalmPilot Pro->IIIe->Vx->m505->T|T->T|T2->T|C->T|T3->T|T5->Zodiac 2->TX->Verizon Treo 700P->Verizon Treo 755p

RE: Is this a joke?
Gekko @ 12/30/2008 7:31:17 PM # Q

or you could just move out of the sticks?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tqxzWdKKu8

RE: Is this a joke?
SeldomVisitor @ 12/31/2008 3:24:12 AM # Q
> ...I hate to say it, but 88,000 fans can't be wrong...

You had to "be a fan" to enter their contest - no fan, no entry.

RE: Is this a joke?
mikecane @ 12/31/2008 6:29:18 AM # Q
I'd reply to Harold, but that Martian-to-English translation was too poor to parse into any sense.

Oh, I'm not comparing dedicated readers to Palm OS. Don't make that mistake. I'm talking about things we do here in the 21st century - like *ePub*. And having a developer base that's interested in doing 21st century things. No ePub for PalmOS = 20th century = lack of developers.

Today is the final day of my blog (thank the gods!). One post I hope to do is about Palm's upcoming OS.

RE: Is this a joke?
mikecane @ 12/31/2008 2:59:41 PM # Q
Update: That planned blog post is a casualty of flagging motivation and lack of time. Eh. No big loss.

Reply to this comment

What about Mike Cane's predictions for the year?

Tuckermaclain @ 12/30/2008 7:20:01 AM # Q
That used to be one of the best, insightful articles that came out each year. Any chances we'll see another?

RE: What about Mike Cane's predictions for the year?
Gekko @ 12/30/2008 9:12:03 AM # Q

i think he got tired of being consistently wrong year after year after year so he's now moved on to predicting doom ex post facto.

RE: What about Mike Cane's predictions for the year?
LiveFaith @ 12/30/2008 1:07:35 PM # Q
He's been selling nails on eBay with free shipping. The ones that come out of Pam's coffin.

Pat Horne
RE: What about Mike Cane's predictions for the year?
LiveFaith @ 12/30/2008 1:08:47 PM # Q
Sorry Pam. Make that Plam! :-D

Pat Horne
RE: What about Mike Cane's predictions for the year?
mikecane @ 12/30/2008 2:25:15 PM # Q
Hahahahahahaahaha.

Hey, what I've had to say about Palm for 2009 is here:

Palm: Revenge Of The Nerdi
http://mikecane2008.wordpress.com/2008/12/15/palm-revenge-of-the-nerdi/

But the road is no longer so clear for them. A WiFi jetBook could steal their eBook share:
http://mikecane2008.wordpress.com/2008/12/30/ectaco-jetbook-built-in-wifi-coming/

Next month will be interesting. I still can't wrap my head around the idea of an "iPhone nano." Damn thing should be getting bigger for eBooks - iPod Air/iPod Touchbook - not smaller like the Playskool Centro.

RE: What about Mike Cane's predictions for the year?
BaalthazaaR @ 12/30/2008 3:04:49 PM # Q
That is one reason for two devices, you don't want to hold up a brick to your ear. I'd rather have a PDA and a small phone with both talking to each other seamlessly than a converged device that is too big/small with too little battery life and pricey data plans.
RE: What about Mike Cane's predictions for the year?
SeldomVisitor @ 12/30/2008 3:31:06 PM # Q
> ...I'd rather have a PDA and a small phone with both talking
> to each other seamlessly...

Hey! Me, too!

- http://discussion.treocentral.com/showthread.php?t=33796&highlight=communicator

Giggle.

RE: What about Mike Cane's predictions for the year?
Gekko @ 12/30/2008 4:12:13 PM # Q

>> ...I'd rather have a PDA and a small phone with both talking
> to each other seamlessly...
>Hey! Me, too!
>Giggle.

they already made a phone for you old folks -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNdw4CfbwQg


RE: What about Mike Cane's predictions for the year?
mikecane @ 12/31/2008 6:31:17 AM # Q
Two devices = two things to charge.

This being said by someone who will soon be carrying three. LifeDrive, eBook reader, and the phone.

Sheesh.

RE: What about Mike Cane's predictions for the year?
SeldomVisitor @ 12/31/2008 6:35:11 AM # Q
> ...talking to each other seamlessly...

As noted elsewhere, if ya want a couple examples of "seamless peering" (or rough equivalent), watch a Nintendo DS and (as many as 16?) other DSes peer up or even the NDS and a Wii.

Now THAT'S seamless!

Reply to this comment

2009

Gekko @ 12/30/2008 9:19:53 AM # Q

i hope that the quality and quantity of comments here and at the other POS sites gets better in 2009. you've all become lazy and indifferent to POS. you should be ashamed of yourselves.


RE: 2009
Tuckermaclain @ 12/30/2008 9:27:59 AM # Q
It's like being a fan of a losing football team like mine, the Cleveland Browns. You still go to the game but you boo them because they stink. In the end you are still a fan but not happy with the team.

That's how I cheer for Palm.

RE: 2009
LiveFaith @ 12/30/2008 1:17:59 PM # Q
No indifference here lizard boy. When Nova comes a rockin', they'll be no more time for knockin'. Remember, just like in hi yield bonds, "Past performance is no indication of future expectations".

It's a new day in Sunnyvale. Palmsource is a distant memory, Nagel has taken over as Senior manager of the WorldCom & Enron merger, Palm kept only the best code from Cobalt, BeOS engineering is in it's swan song behind the scenes doing miracles, the Foleo II team has worked out the final kinks, and breakthrough new designs are only 10 days out from your very eyes.
Go ahead and get your iPhones, and BBs ready for eBay, because the Nova is about to explode in Vegas like Oprah's dress size. It's gonna be a wooooonderful year.

That should get the quality back to even keel ya doubter!

Pat Horne

RE: 2009
Gekko @ 12/30/2008 1:38:01 PM # Q

now all we need is for you to go over and lay hands on Nova and give it a final blessing before it goes out into the free world.

RE: 2009
SeldomVisitor @ 12/30/2008 1:39:46 PM # Q
> ...When Nova comes a rockin...

Per months and months of words out of Palm management like:

== "...This platform development is firmly on track to be
== completed by the end of this year..."

it's due to come a rockin' by COB tomorrow.

RE: 2009
mikecane @ 12/30/2008 2:26:39 PM # Q
Christ, I started cheerleading Palm weeks ago, Gekko, you eejit (see above link!). You pooh-poohed it! Hypocrite. Go count the losses on your 401K, chump.

RE: 2009
CFreymarc @ 12/30/2008 4:51:54 PM # Q
How many out there really cares about Nova? This going to be up there with the Studebaker Avanti? That is the last great design for a company so screwed up in lack of vision and reputation that the market doesn't even bother.
RE: 2009
LiveFaith @ 12/30/2008 6:06:12 PM # Q
CF,

That's downright neggy man. This is the vision of sugarPalms thread. Nothing but positive round here. Palm invented the handheld computer and the smartphone ... lightening is about to strike x 3!

Gekko, I can't be in Vegas, but I'm sending a little cloth in the mail to Ed that I buffed the Roteo off with. Are you gonna give now or just reap the benefits?

Pat Horne

RE: 2009
hkklife @ 12/30/2008 7:12:27 PM # Q
Show of hands:

Who all here is gonna be in Vegas next week for the "big" new-ness? Predictions?


Pilot 1000->Pilot 5000->PalmPilot Pro->IIIe->Vx->m505->T|T->T|T2->T|C->T|T3->T|T5->Zodiac 2->TX->Verizon Treo 700P->Verizon Treo 755p

RE: 2009
CFreymarc @ 12/30/2008 7:33:08 PM # Q
My prediction is they will get much less press than they expect. It will not be the star of the show. Everyone is wondering where Steve Jobs will be since he is not doing the keynote at MacWorld, if he shows at CES - it is face slapping time.
RE: 2009
Gekko @ 12/30/2008 7:37:35 PM # Q

PIC ROAD TRIP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

RE: 2009 - better yet, end-of-year 2008
SeldomVisitor @ 12/31/2008 3:31:26 AM # Q
> How many out there really cares about Nova?...

I care about Nova to the extent that I cared about the last Next Great Thing, the Fooleo.

I was really looking forward to that device to see what Palm had done. In fact, I'm =still= making excuses for Palm and saying things like "maybe The Next Great Thing wasn't actually the Fooleo, but the idea behind multiple communicating devices!" even though we've seen no evidence whatsoever to back up that enthusiasm...and I'm not exactly known as a Palm fanboy.

So now I'm waiting with bated breath to see Nova 'cause Colligan said it would be "breakthrough" in all its being.

------

BTW - TODAY is end-of-year. I expect Palm to uphold its promising words of "...This platform development is firmly on track to be completed by the end of this year..." and see at LEAST a PR-Fluff out of Palm noting the "event of completion" (true or not!) if not the details.


RE: 2009
SeldomVisitor @ 12/31/2008 3:32:58 AM # Q
Oopsie! I forgot to add the aside..."I wonder if Palm dropped 'Nova' and instead quietly went with Android?"...

RE: 2009
pmjoe @ 12/31/2008 6:07:52 AM # Q
Oopsie! I forgot to add the aside..."I wonder if Palm dropped 'Nova' and instead quietly went with Android?"...

The latest rumor I was hearing was JavaFX.

Either Nova:
1. is Palm's version of Android
2. is Palm's version of JavaFX
3. is the best kept secret since ... hmm ... that real alien autopsy video nobody has seen yet
4. is going to be a complete dud, because anything that great wouldn't stay a secret this long

Sounds like a good poll question!

RE: 2009
SeldomVisitor @ 12/31/2008 6:14:27 AM # Q
Yeah, Mike Cane's trying to push the idea of JavaFX - note that JavaFX for Mobile is not yet out.

Both, however, have to sit on top of, for example, Linux so that brings us back to "Android?"...


RE: 2009
mikecane @ 12/31/2008 6:34:10 AM # Q
How many times must I repeat that JavaFX is irrelevant to Nova right now because the first device will *not* be a phone, therefore will have the horsepower for full JavaFX?

PIC Road Trip? Sounds great! Let's all pile into Gekko's Lexus and take off to Vegas, baby. You ride in the trunk, Gekko!

RE: 2009
mikecane @ 12/31/2008 6:35:18 AM # Q
*Missing word = JavaFX MOBILE up there. Tripped up by lack of editing - and proofing - again!

RE: 2009
SeldomVisitor @ 12/31/2008 6:41:48 AM # Q
> ...because the first device will *not* be a phone...

Colligan said at the last earnings call, more than once, the first device is a phone:

== "...Our new platform is nearing completion and our first next
== generation phone is set for launch in the first half of calendar
== year '09 as planned..."

and

== "...For the rapidly expanding consumer market, we think Palm's
== breakthrough new platform will bring a truly differentiated
== smartphone experience to users..."

among others.

Reply to this comment

Hey, lefty! KMA, baby!

mikecane @ 12/31/2008 6:38:11 AM # Q
Large Form iPod Touch To Launch in Fall ‘09
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/12/30/large-form-ipod-touch-to-launch-in-fall-09/

Amp up your meds again, you miserable pathetic cretin of a failed OS company!

Archos isn't going to save ACCESS's butt. No one buys Archos.

Most people already got an iPod Touch for Xmas.

Weep, you unemployed failure.

RE: Hey, lefty! KMA, baby!
akalefty @ 12/31/2008 7:55:40 AM # Q
Oh, a rumor. How exciting. And on a timeframe only two years behind your "predictions." Whee. I guess we can wait a year and see if you still look like as much of a loon by then; my money's on "yes", at whatever odds: you're clearly a guy who's unable to distinguish what he wishes would happen from what makes even a little bit of sense.

It's also fairly amusing to be called "unemployed" by a guy whose finances are apparently so shaky that the closest he can get to a iPhone is French-kissing the glass on the front window at the Apple Store.

If only wishing made it so, Mikey, if only wishing made it so. Baka ni tsukeru kusuri wa nai, chinpira.


RE: Hey, lefty! KMA, baby!
nastebu @ 12/31/2008 8:31:51 AM # Q
Aside from the playground rants, if Apple *does* release the two rumored products-an iPod Nano and a larger internet tablet-they are going to be edging in on two places that there seemed to be a bit of room for Palm. That is, the cheap smart phone and the more than phone Foleo like internet-on-the-go tablet.

It's all rumor, but it's hard to imagine Apple *not* thinking along these lines given the overwhelming success of the iPhone.

RE: Hey, lefty! KMA, baby!
mikecane @ 12/31/2008 3:01:25 PM # Q
Poor lefty. Still in denial that the failure of ACCESS is an adequate reflection of his *own* failure.

RE: Hey, lefty! FMA, baby!
FrequentVisitor @ 1/1/2009 1:43:44 PM # Q
Oh, a rumor. How exciting. And on a timeframe only two years behind your "predictions." Whee. I guess we can wait a year and see if you still look like as much of a loon by then; my money's on "yes", at whatever odds: you're clearly a guy who's unable to distinguish what he wishes would happen from what makes even a little bit of sense.

It's also fairly amusing to be called "unemployed" by a guy whose finances are apparently so shaky that the closest he can get to a iPhone is French-kissing the glass on the front window at the Apple Store.


Mike Cane "French-kissing the glass on the front window at the Apple Store." What a disgusting image. The idea of this greasy, dishevelled, ranting lunatic being allowed out of its hovel long enough to get close to the public is downright creepy.

Despite this, even a stopped clock is right twice daily. Ms. Cane has made so many "predictions" (actually W.A.G.s) that sooner or later one was destined to be correct. (Give an infinite number of Make Canes an infinite number of typewriters and eventually they will spew out something correct.)

Shrink this:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51D9C6V1Z4L._SS400_.jpg

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41QTVFAHTAL._SS400_.jpg

$399, includes iStylus. Bluetooth stereo headphone with microphone costs $99.

RE: Hey, lefty! KMA, baby!
freakout @ 1/1/2009 1:53:30 PM # Q
Apple's strategy since forever has been to sell their laptops at vastly inflated prices by pretending to be superior to all that Windows rubbish. Why would they undermine themselves and start selling cheap netbooks now, when they have their Macbook Air selling decently (for Apple) @ $1799?
RE: Hey, lefty! KMA, baby!
mikecane @ 1/1/2009 2:44:34 PM # Q
>>>Give an infinite number of Make Canes

Just ONE Mike Cane will kick your flabby ass an infinite number of times.

And *I* am that Mike Cane, asswad.

No go off and wipe for the beating to come.

RE: Hey, lefty! LMA, baby!
FrequentVisitor @ 1/1/2009 2:51:01 PM # Q
Apple's strategy since forever has been to sell their laptops at vastly inflated prices by pretending to be superior to all that Windows rubbish. Why would they undermine themselves and start selling cheap netbooks now, when they have their Macbook Air selling decently (for Apple) @ $1799?

It's all about stratification and differentiation. Apple are masters at avoiding cannibalization of their cash cows by bring out Rabid Mad Cow products like the Palm Centro. Every Apple product is priced, featured and promoted to fill a very precise market niche.

The iPhone Netbook is not a MacBook. It is an iPhone with a keyboard and a slightly bigger screen. It runs iPhone (not Mac desktop) applications. It syncs wirelessly and seamlessly with a Mac Desktop and Apple webspace; it can easily remotely control a Mac desktop. People that own a MacBook will also buy an iPhone Netbook, while people that would never have considered buying a MacBook will buy an iPhone Netbook. Once brought into the Apple "Collective", new iPhone Netbook owners will be more amenable to buying other overpriced boutique Apple products like the MacBooks. Win. Win.

The iPhone Netbook is what the Palm Foleo could have been. In 2006. Ask Ben Combee what was happening with the Foleo and you'll understand why the iPhone Netbook, iPhone and iPod Touch are so important to Apple. Mac desktops and laptops are the past. Even Apple has long since realized that they cannot forever run from the reality that the presense of increasingly sophisticated, inexpensive + small ASUS, Samsung, Dell, etc hardware have resulted in the commodification of the laptop/desktop market. (Compare a $499 Samsung NC10 to the $1800 MacBook you referenced, for example.) Without proprietary services and a cohesive platform, Apple would be as dead as Palm is now, albeit 5 or 6 years later.

Palm had all of the pieces several years ago to leverage email and services as a means of differentiation and to reinvent its business model. Instead they chose the status quo and living from quarter to quarter. Palm's leadership has been remarkably incompetent for almost a decade and have plundered + run the company into the ground. As the Good Reverend once said, "Palm's chickens are coming home... to roost".


Sunnyvale Deserves Better

RE: Hey, lefty! TMA, baby!
FrequentVisitor @ 1/1/2009 2:55:18 PM # Q
If anyone is unfortunate enough to be splashed by the spittle and foam spewing from Ms. Cane's fetid maw, here is the treatment of choice:

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/drug-information/DR601183

RE: Hey, lefty! KMA, baby!
mikecane @ 1/1/2009 5:34:00 PM # Q
Aw, look at you. Keep thinking you know something. Everyone else can see the truth.

RE: Hey, lefty! KMA, baby!
nastebu @ 1/1/2009 7:28:31 PM # Q
*not bothering to turn this thread into another mac vs. pc rehash*

Given the enormous amount of energy, time, and money Apple have put into the iPhone OS, why on earth would they not expand the product line?

Reply to this comment

Palm is DEAD

FrequentVisitor @ 1/1/2009 1:00:53 PM # Q
Palm is DEAD.

Wake up, people. Look around you. There are about 10 people posting here at Palminfocenter. Most other Palm OS fan sites besides Treocentral are either already dead or are dying.

A few questions to start off 2009:

1) Where is the new Palm OS, code named Nova?

Answer: See Copeland, BeOS, Cobalt, Palm Linux, ALP OS, Foleo OS.

2)Who will buy Palm?

Answer: WHY would any company buy Palm?

3) Where are all the Cobalt devices that we were promised several years ago?

Answer: In NeverNeverLand.

4) Where are all the ALP OS devices that were supposdly coming out last year?

Answer: In NeverNeverLand. Even the gullible Samsung realized that ALP OS was about to become a massive FAIL, and wisely pulled the plug on their ALP OS phone - even though it was ready to be released.

5) What killed Cobalt?

Answer: Squabbling amongst PalmSource staff, incompetent software design, inability to squash bugs, slow speed, and (most importantly) lack of ROI compared to turnkey Palm OS 5 and Windows Mobile solutions.

6) Can a desktop OS company like Apple just "walk in" and compete with established smartphone companies like Palm?

Answer: Apparently, Edward. Apparently. (Does AstroGlide cause brain damage?)

7) How severe has Palm's loss in marketshare and revenue become over the past year?

Answer: Fatal. Without another massive injection of capital, Palm will go out of business in 2009.

8) What is Elevation Partners planning to do?

Answer: They will take Palm private within one quarter and then flip the company.

9) What is Google planning to do?

Answer: Buy marketshare.

10) Will Android succeed?

Answer: Yes. The release of better quality hardware in form factors like the Palm Centro, HTC Touch Pro and Apple iPhone will siphon marketshare from Palm OS, Blackberry and Windows Mobile.

11) What is Microsoft planning to do?

Answer: Tie in Microsoft Exchange to smother Blackberry and tie in Microsoft Office wireless synchronization to smother Google and Apple.

12) What is RIM planning to do?

Answer: Gain critical mass in order to protect a suspect infrastructure and a very vulnerable business model. Expect much flashier hardware designed to appeal more to individual customers rather than corporate clients.

13) What will kill RIM?

Answer: Deadly hacks that take down the naively-centralized RIM email servers; "free", well-integrated email solutions from Microsoft, Apple and Google; second-rate, overpriced hardware; buggy software that turns off non-corporate new Blackberry users previously accustomed to dumbphones that "just work".

14) When will the RIM bubble burst?

Answer: Within 3 months.

15) Will Ed Colligan be replaced at Palm?

Answer: Yes. Within 3 months.

16) What is Apple planning to do?

Answer: Leverage iPhone success as a means of siphoning sales from RIM, Palm, Windows Mobile etc.

17) What iPhone OS products does Apple have under wraps?

Answer: iPhone Nano (1/2 size of current iPhone), iPod Nano Touch (iPhone Nano without cell phone radio), iPhone Netbook (smaller than ASUS eee PC).

18) Can Palm survive?

Answer: Not as an independent company.

19) What is the best smartphone deal available on the market?

Answer: Olive Sprint Palm Centro.

20) What products will still be supported by Palm in six months?

Answer: Centro 1.0, 1.1; Treo Pro, Treo X.




The Oracle of Sunnyvale

RE: Palm is DEAD
SeldomVisitor @ 1/1/2009 1:10:27 PM # Q
Andy, is that you!?

RE: Palm is DEAD
FrequentVisitor @ 1/1/2009 1:22:04 PM # Q
As David Schlesinger said earlier: Baka ni tsukeru kusuri wa nai, chinpira.


With Palm about to go teats up, these must be good times for you, hengeem. You've waited a long time for the opportunity to revel in the sounds of Palm's death rattle. Enjoy the sweet taste of revenge, Baka Boy. Giggle.

RE: Palm is DEAD
freakout @ 1/1/2009 1:45:58 PM # Q
iPhone Netbook (smaller than ASUS eee PC)

That costs fifty times as much.

And doesn't do cut-and-paste.

Also it has no keyboard.

RE: Palm is DEAD
FrequentVisitor @ 1/1/2009 3:04:41 PM # Q
That costs fifty times as much.

And doesn't do cut-and-paste.

Also it has no keyboard.

As someone who was so staggeringly wrong about the iPhone it's odd to see you still haven't learned your lesson.

The iPhone Netbook has a keyboard, does cut + paste and will cost less than a Treo Pro. Keep clinging to your guns, religion and defective Copper Treo 680 in that bomb (bum?) shelter that you and Mike Cane share together.


Sunnyvale. The Center of Silicon Valley.

RE: Palm is DEAD
mikecane @ 1/1/2009 5:35:53 PM # Q
>>>you and Mike Cane share together.

Got some kind of fixation on me now, do you? Even to the point of trying to ape my precedent-setting year-end predictions. Poor you.

And if we were in a shelter together, my hands would be rapidly around his neck. But not as fast as they would be around yours.

RE: Palm is DEAD
freakout @ 1/1/2009 9:01:15 PM # Q
Settle down, big fella. I was joking.

But... "staggeringly" wrong?

I said iPhone was too expensive. Apple lowered the price.

I said it was not a particularly useful mobile computer without third-party app support. They added it.

I said that for the primary purpose of a phone - communication - a purely virtual interface without physical buttons is more of a PITA than one with. Still true.

I never disputed it was going to be successful. Shit, with the amount of media saturation it got the iPhone could have been a bucket of sand and it still would have sold millions.

P.S. Congratulations on staying away for so long, TVoR. Are you going to spam the site with calls for my sacking again? (from my freelance, at-will position? LOL)

P.P.S. Traded in my 680 for a Centro a couple of months ago.

Tim
I apologise for any and all emoticons that appear in my posts. You may shoot them on sight.
Treo 270 -> Treo 650 -> Treo 680 -> Centro

Reply to this comment

How Palm Could Lose Everything

Gekko @ 1/1/2009 3:44:47 PM # Q

Today, we'll look at what might happen if Palm chooses incremental improvement over rebellious innovation - and consider how this once-proud tech titan could go the way of the dodo.

http://www.fool.com/investing/high-growth/2008/12/30/how-palm-could-lose-everything.aspx

RE: How Palm Could Lose Everything
mikecane @ 1/1/2009 5:40:57 PM # Q
The dealbreakers:

1) Can't do YouTube
2) Can't do Flash
3) Can't do Twitter
4) Can do blog posts (have fun with WordPress 2.7!)
5) Can't do Flickr
6) Can't install apps wirelessly
7) Can't buy & d/l music & eBooks
8) DRMed up the wazoo

Not ten, but that's a start.

RE: How Palm Could Lose Everything
Ed Lin @ 1/1/2009 10:53:37 PM # Q
What are you talking about? Obviously not Palm, since my Centro can

1) Do YouTube Mobile
2) how many mobile platforms that don't suck run flash again? (Well, soon Android will, but it doesn't yet.)
3) Can do twitter (with a Java app)
4) can do blog posts (with cellspin and plogit)
5) can do flickr and picassa among others (with cellspin)
6) can install apps over bluetooth or via the internet
7) well, I can't download music, but some ebooks if in the right format can be downloaded, and I definitely can and do read ebooks on it
8) DRM?

So what *are* you talking about, you're aware that this is a Palm board, aren't you? ;-)

Reply to this comment

Free Ben Combee!

FrequentVisitor @ 1/1/2009 3:57:44 PM # Q
Attn "Fast" Eddie Colligan:

Please remove the muzzle from one of your few remaining honorable employees, Ben Combee, and let him speak to the Super Hip Intense Terrific OS Formally Known As Nova (SHITOFKAN).

Failing that, at least announce another contest using you and that eerily-androgynous piece of EuroTrash, Claus:

http://www.facebook.com/claus

http://blog.palm.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/2007/10/01/img_00181.jpg

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/images/press/2005/09-26treoPC_lg.jpg

http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/0fEMgFu8p9gVc/610x.jpg

http://content.zdnet.com/2347-9595_22-34139-34140.html?seq=1


Thank you, Eddie.

XOXOX

Your neighbor & #1 fan in Sunnyvale

P.S. You probably wouldn't have had to FIRE so many good people if you actually had the SLIGHTEST CLUE how to actually run a company or if you ever bothered to actually LISTEN to those of us who have been trying to pry your FAT GREASY FINGERS off the self-destruct button at Palm HQ for the past 3 years. TTFN, Sweetie.

RE: Free Ben Combee!
mikecane @ 1/1/2009 5:37:34 PM # Q
Oh look! It's the Voice of Poison!

>>>Attn "Fast" Eddie Colligan:

Yeah, poor pathetic stalker:
http://mikecane2008.wordpress.com/2008/12/10/palms-final-bet-all-in/

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