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We know you've heard this before: Palm has a new handheld OS coming. Seriously. Replacing the now five-and-a-half-year-old Palm OS 5, Palm's unnamed Linux-based OS will arrive by the end of 2008, with new devices appearing early in 2009. ( J; {# L( T0 m8 ?2 u+ M
The new OS strategy was announced by Palm chief executive Ed Colligan in an earnings conference call last October, and confirmed in another conference call last week. We spoke to Palm's director of product management Stephane Maes to get more details. 4 }2 U# A) I+ u! \( ~" Y
"In this next-generation platform, we're getting back to our roots with simplicity and elegance," Maes said.
% B9 p' M7 `9 R) { L, l" wNow, the unnamed new OS that wags have been calling "Nova" or "Palm OS II" isn't the Linux-based OS that Palm was going to use last year. That product, the Access Linux Platform, didn't meet Palm's standards, Maes said. 4 w; G+ u* G% D; G: u
"There were things in that platform that were focused on a different set of customers than what we were looking to do, and there were things in that platform that do not support things we would like to do going forward," Maes said. " h9 w7 R1 r* X/ K
With Palm's heritage coming from the personal information management world, the new platform will focus on integrating different kinds of data stored in different locations, he said.
* T) G; H' `5 ]( P5 k"It's a Web-enabled world, where people have contacts in multiple locations. You start thinking about all of the different places where people have information, it's really about managing people's lives. That's a lot of the heritage we're really going to leverage and expand on going forward," he said.
% J# z+ ~* ~( H$ zAnd what of PDAs? Palm's PDA line, the TX and Z22, appeal to people who don't want monthly wireless carrier contracts. They haven't been updated in years. Palm is looking at technologies like WiMAX to deliver next-generation products
9 W8 q) C$ s2 _8 c. [+ r"There are certainly emerging technologies from a wireless perspective that could allow for different business models going forward," Maes said. 5 L- a. ~/ k$ l2 b- A+ ?- R
In the mean time, Palm intends to launch more Windows Mobile devices and is riding the success of their low-cost Centro on Sprint. Palm has suffered two quarters of financial losses, but the company has enough cash to make it through 2008 for a 2009 comeback, Maes said.
& u# [" ]9 K! l8 |3 ZAll of this sounds good, but Palm is working against a history of failing to bring new operating systems to market. Palm OS's successor was first supposed to be an OS called Cobalt in 2004; that didn't happen. Then, in 2007, they got on board with the ACCESS Linux Platform, which also didn't pan out. ! Q3 S0 O' C# {1 }$ v+ e
Palm has learned a painful lesson from its years of dealing with PalmSource and ACCESS, the independent companies that controlled the Palm OS after Palm let it go. If you're going to get an OS right, Maes said, you have to do it yourself.
( \. ] C( T1 l7 [* R"When we did some of our best things is when we had everything under one roof," he said. "If you look at some of the great successes in the industry recently, they have software, hardware and services all together." |
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