New York Times Interview with Ed Colligan

Frankly, this struck me as a fairly disappointing interview, full of buzzwords, bereft of content or focus.

"All opinions posted are my own, and not those of my employers, who are appalled."

But in the meantime, it benefits a hardware manufacturer to push the products he will be releasing soon, rather than products he might be releasing late next year (my guess).

It would have been nice if the question had come up, though.

Jon Acheson

"All opinions posted are my own, and not those of my employers, who are appalled."

But then, right now, Palm's message is a bit unfocused. I wonder if it's only just dawning on them exactly what the got into when they decided to go dual-platform for the software.

Marty Fouts

I survived PalmSource '05

I was expecting at LEAST a mid-year improvement (650x or whatever) that would have doubled the RAM and squashed a few bugs. Instead Palm seems to have been spending all it's time and energy buying the right to delete three letters of it's name and put WinceMob into the carcass of the Treo. It's like - "hey, thanks for the memories you PalmOS-lovin' suckers... we've taken all the R&D money and run off to Bermuda with Bill Gates."...

Those firmware updates were like a "Dear John" letter to the users that kept Palm alive up to this point. They're skimping so much I'm expecting the next Palm PDAs will be free in a McDonalds Happy Meal.

That AAP thread was possibly the most surreal thread I've ever been involved in - with the exception of the PIC ones with the vivacious Ms. Hackborn. Too bad that dumba$$ Ewan deleted several of the posts. Funny how Dianne evaded the simple questions about PalmLinux + Cobalt, isn't it? Beersy tried to rescue DK and ended up making a fool of himself (as usual).

Colligan would never agree to an interview with me since I would ask the questions he doesn't want to answer. It's time for Palm to stop the B.S. and the SPIN and get back to simply making good devices again.

My guess? The Times must indeed be hard up for some compelling copy this close to year's end. AND...someone at Verizon gently *nudged* the Times into running this piece on the eve of the "official" 700W launch. Expect a followup piece in early January proclaiming the virtues of the 700W and Palm's impending "renaissance".

The reason he didn't say anything about Linux/open source plans is due to being SO deeply in cahoots with M$/VZW at the present time. The 700W might be the only "important" piece of hardware Colligan's company releases in '06 (aside from a final few ~$200 FrankenGarnet POS rehashes). Best to sidestep ANYTHING that might make the latest (final?) cash cow look a little less appealing!

As I posted elsewhere, the Windows Mobile Treo was supposed to buy Palm a little time until PalmLinux would be ready. The only problem is Palm then lost control of PalmOS in the meantime. OOOPS!

TVoR

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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

At least Palm could have pulled and Apple and ended up a niche player with it's own OS. Now, they are swimming with the sharks and have no way to retreat to a niche when the M$/Moto/HTC machine rolls over them.

** What's really funny is to read the Times report and then immediately read the sobering posts that follow. Every first time investor and business student should be required by law to do such exercises. :-D

Pat Horne; www.churchoflivingfaith.com

Yes, a number of Treo owners are "new" to the platform but I suspect that some of these owned a Palm V or III back in the day....went to PPC for a few years before coming back to POS just because of the Treo.

And.....yes, sales are DRASTICALLY going to taper off if not collapse completely once it's realized that the 700w is a SINGLE CARRIER EXCLUSIVE for the time being and the Treo 650 hardware is a total joke going into '06. Now so more than ever Palm needs a STRONG, solid entry in the midrange PDA segment. The TX is a step in the right direction (in theory) but it's still too "cheap" and unattractive and lacks the essentials expected in a $300 device (style, charging LED, voice recorder, STABLE OS).

A tightly focused lineup of a Z22, Z33 (combining the Zire 31 & Zire 72), TX, TZ (theoretical Palm V successor with metal body and >TX specs), POSSIBLY a LD2, a $200 Treo, and the Treo 700w & 700p (BOTH on multiple carriers) would be key to a strong '06 and Palm being able to coast through until Plinux is ready(ish).

Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX

PRECISELY the specs you mention, Pat, aside from 2gb-4gb of storage--that much aint' necessary what with the CONSTANTLY plummeting SD card prices.

No, a solidly built 480*320 T|C2 just as your describe with BT 1.2 and wi-fi. 128mb RAM with a 512mb internal drive ala the T5. NO voice functionality whatsoever--just a blissfully pure data-centric device. What a machine that'd be!

With the proper hacking/rehacking/patching, FrankenGarnet MIGHT even be able to handle such a monster (but don't get your hopes up).

I am, of course, not expecting anything like the above and will continue to assume the company is pinning ALL hopes on the 700w.

Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX

Look how solid the T3 was for a first effort at 320*480. Merely adding NVFS & an internal storage drive into the mix made for disasterous results on the T5!

Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX

While I'm on that topic...
I vividly recall getting my T|T in Nov '02 and being sooo excited that it could share peripherals from my m505. Then I realized that the UC fit was workable but kinda loose. Then none of my existing apps supported 320*320. A sizable number didn't even support OS5 by that point--and some were never even updated to be OS5-compliant!

By the time the software market caught up with the T|T, the T2 had effectively replaced it.

Have you ever seen such a wide range of incompatible products running what is essentially the same OS? From the T|T to the Zire 21 to the TX to the LifeDrive...you have a huge variety of handhelds MADE by Palm and all running some flavor of OS 5.x yet there are numerous programs that only run on select models in that lineup. NOT a confidence-inspiring statistic any way you spin it.

By and large, bugs/quirks/incompatabilities/non-updated apps/too many OS revs/poor legacy support is one of the factors IMO that has done POS in. I literally have registered programs that worked fine on my T|T only to upgrade to a T3 a few months later and have the app be incompatible, never again to be updated.

I've spent MORE money over the past 4 years on registered/retail Palm software that I've had to ABANDON than I am still using some variant of today. Want high-res? Gotta discard 1/4 of your apps. Want QVGA? Discard some more. Want a Treo or an NVFS device? Discard some more apps.

What I'm trying to say is that it doesn't matter any more if it's "next gen" or "this gen". Supporting the PalmCONomy=$ paid for users, developers, and peripheral makers alike.

Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX

I think not if it works in Ireland, which as far as I know, has no CDMA/EV-DO network. This is what EC said:

"When you see our next-gen product, it has a high-speed radio in it, literally bringing kind of broadband connection speeds to the device. It totally changes the dynamic of how accessible the Internet is as an information access point wherever you are and whenever you want to get access to it.

Everything from looking up the meaning of words, booking a table at OpenTable.com, to doing a Google search on my family history in Ireland as I’m driving through the Irish coast when we’re opening our center over there."

The Irish centre actually opened a while ago:

http://news.zdnet.com/2110-1040_22-5919728.html

so I'm guessing that this next-gen 3G product (Hollywood?) is at least at the stage of functioning prototype.

So you use the Sammy OS4 smartphone + your motley crew of OS5 Clies and they meet all of your needs?

Yes, these devices are more than adequate. After 10 years of being on the cutting edge with PDAs and beta testing apps, I've sorted out what I NEED and what I WANT on a PDA in terms of both hardware and software. Yes, I have a number of cool, obscure apps that I keep on my PDAs, but the core list of 30 or so apps that get the most use every day hasn't changed much over the past several years. In fact, I could get along fine even if I was only able to use those core apps for the next 5 years. Much like desktops, PDA hardware and software seem to have already reached their peak in terms of rate of development. Until mobile voice recognition is truly here, all that's left is incremental upgrades. (Is a Tungsten X REALLY much different from a Pilot 1000? No.)

I was holding out waiting for Sprint to approve the Samsung i500 replacement, but it got dumped at the last minute, so I switched back to the i500 as my main phone. Besides the limited RAM (16 MB), lack of PalmOS 5 (there are one or two apps I like that won't run on PalmOS 4), low res screen and lack of memory expansion, the i500 is a perfect phone. Superb build quality, excellent voice quality, small size (many executives + professionals wouldn't be caught dead with a brick-like Treo geekphone) - everything the Treo 600/650 is not.

OS4 is in SOME ways the ideal Palm OS if you are just going to be doing the basics. I loved the one-handed navigation as pioneered by the T|T & co. (ie holding down the center button returns you to the launcher). I detest the "Treo style" one-handed navigation that the newer Palm units have adopted.

On the i500 I do miss the slick D-pad and entirely one-handed navigation my Treo 600 had, though. Handspring absolutely NAILED the User Interface with the Treo 600 - I don't think they get enough credit for their intuitive design.

Still, I added up the $ total I'd spent on registering Palm apps/games over the past 4 yearsa nd got really depressed....

I'm using a LOT of freeware and updated shareware these days. Look around - a lot of time you'll find freeware equivalents that are eithe "good enough" or ever far superior to commercial apps.

I'm still trying to get the reg code to the last game I bought from PalmGear back in SEPTEMBER--the developer seems asleep at their wheel and their online reg code/fulfillment system seems impossibly broken on certain titles. I just get the same old caned support message over & over....

I would call my credit card company and dispute the charge if I was you. There's no excuse for fraud.

I'll basically give my $ to DataViz, SplashData, Astrware, and a few other select developers and that's IT. Sorry to sound so grim but it hurts to take it to gut time after time for mobile software...

DateBk5, HandyShopper, APCalc, TCPMP, McFile, BackupMan, PowerRUN, TealAuto, TealLock, DiddleBug, Zagat To Go, CryptoPad, Directory Assistant, YAUC, BeamCrack, HaCkMe, Manana, MultiUserHack, EVPlugBase (or TealMaster), Documents To Go, Ultrasoft Money, PayOffPlus, WhatzUp, RecoX, SFCave, McPhling, Undupe, Filez, DA Launcher, Vexed, FileMan, Picsel Viewer, Mass Transit, Wine Enthusiast Guide, Mi:D, TextTwist, NetFront, SnapperMail, URLSync, SplashID, domino!, Open, Hell Clock and a couple other apps have been on most of my PDAs for years. These apps are either well-supported or are abandonware that was well-coded in the first place and never needed updating to maintain functionality. At this point I don't really care if 95% of my apps ever get updated.

The Palm eCONomy is stagnant because there's no reason for most users to ever buy much software. And those who are likely to want a lot of apps are also likely to know how easy it is to crack Palm apps. (It takes around 10 seconds to crack 90% of the good shareware apps out there - I feel sorry for developers trying to make a living in the Palm eCONomy...)

------------------------
Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.
------------------------

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