More Doubts About Palm OS
In the aftermath of PalmSource’s sale to Japanese mobile software developer Access a few months back, there’s been a lot of speculation that the sale signalled the beginning of the end for the Palm OS, particularly for smartphones — an idea bolstered by the decision of Palm (the device manufacturer) to use Windows Mobile for its next Treo. Even right after the purchase, there was speculation that nobody really cared to buy the Palm OS, it was PalmSource’s business selling applications to Chinese phone manufacturers that had the real value. Now, questions remain about the future of the venerable Palm OS. A new version hasn’t come out since September 2004, and it hasn’t been used on any devices. PalmSource, for what it’s worth, says the operating system has a future in its Linux version, but it doesn’t sound like too many people are going to wait around for it, not even Palm. Palm OS’ relevance as a smartphone OS is dwindling, and it’s hard to see anything at this point rebuilding it into a viable competitor against the likes of Symbian, Windows Mobile and Linux.
