quasar
01-19-2007, 09:45 PM
As you may or may not have seen, today Brighthand reported on an Engadget Mobile story detailing a leaked product road-map for Sprint/Nextel for the first half of the year. The list ends with the Palm Sherlock in June. Engadget thinks it's just a new Treo, but I'm convinced it's more.
http://www.brighthand.com/default.asp?newsID=12749
http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/01/18/hands-on-with-sprints-1h-07-roadmap/
At first, one might dismiss it as a codename. However, if you look at the list, you'll see that all of the phones have real model numbers, not simply codenames. Yes, it is possible that the Sherlock isn't named yet, but if it were a Treo, wouldn't Sprint put "Treo" on the list? So, assuming that it is, indeed, a new device, let's look at what clues to it's characteristics the name gives us.
Palm Inc. named their devices strictly by letters and numbers between the time of the 3com buyout and the release of Palm OS 5.0- no words. Afterwards, beginning with the Tungsten T, Palm named it's devices with names that represented something about the device. The "T" stood for Travel, the T|W stood for Wireless, the "E" stood for Economic, etc. The only time since the Pilot that Palm named the device itself, and not a series, with a real word is the LifeDrive, using the slogan, "What drives your life?". The name and slogan reflected how Palm wanted the LifeDrive to be a center for your life, with a list of things it could do posted prominently on the packaging (music, movies, docs, email, etc.). Partially from the the single-word name, I contend that the Sherlock is an extension of the Mobile Manager category. Since the experimental LifeDrive has recently been EOL'd, it's plausible that a device is going to replace it soon. Palm may be focused on Treo smartphones, but as Alan said in the podcast, they are a mobile computing company, not a smartphone company. The LifeDrive was as much a mobile computer as any Palm, perhaps even more so because of it's HDD.
So, what could the name "Sherlock" mean? The only Sherlock of real reputation is Sherlock Holmes, the famous fictional detective. What characteristics did he have? He was very clever, and could learn things from facts his peers were oblivious to, because he had trained himself to do so. He could figure out how information was relevant to whatever he was researching, regardless of whether or not it seemed to even matter. He was very intelligent. Now, compare these traits with Jeff Hawkins' description of his pet project:
I always think of mobile computing as personal computing. This long-term vision has led us through everything -- first the organizers and now through the smart phone space. It's like everything a personal computer is. Continue down that path. What are the implications of a world where everyone has a super high-speed Internet connection in their pocket and many gigabytes of storage, super-fast processors, audio, visual and multimedia? What are the consequences of that? How will that change computing when you have all that stuff available to you all the time? I try to think into the future. That's how we come up with new products. So I'm not going to tell you what it is, but it's following the consequences of mobile computing.This device has super-fast processors- the chief piece of hardware that allows computers to be (almost) genuinely intelligent. It has access to A/V input and the Internet all the time. Yes, the Treo falls into the category, but it's far from revolutionary. It's apparent that Jeff is leaving things out of his description of the so-called Hawk, or he'd just say it's a Treo. So, let's pair things that we know about Jeff Hawkins and the Hawk together with the characteristics of the name Sherlock.
First, Jeff's hobby is brain research. He studies how the brain interacts with the world around it, and it's been assumed for some time now that that research will play a significant role in the development of the Hawk.
Second, the thing that keeps the Treo, with it's A/V input and Internet connection, from being as smart as Sherlock is the lack of knowledge of how the brain works. Sherlock Holmes understood human nature and was able to use that to solve mysteries.
The Hawk will also be able to do this, by learning from it's surroundings and your use habits what you want to do.
Now, the Hawk could still be a long ways off, right? Well, the thing that makes me think that the Sherlock is it is the timing. We know that Palm has been hard at work on both Palm OS II and the Hawk for a long time, and the two surely go together- what's a next-generation device without a next-generation operating system?. We also know that Palm is going to be a sinking ship if they don't get a new OS out this year, preferably before the middle of the year. Palm can't compete with other Windows Mobile devices or the iPhone with an OS that hasn't been updated in two years, and what's a next-gen OS without a next-gen device to take advantage of it? So, I reason that the two must be paired, and Sherlock is a name I would give only to a super-smart next-generation device.
So, that's my take on the Palm Sherlock. What do you think?
http://www.brighthand.com/default.asp?newsID=12749
http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/01/18/hands-on-with-sprints-1h-07-roadmap/
At first, one might dismiss it as a codename. However, if you look at the list, you'll see that all of the phones have real model numbers, not simply codenames. Yes, it is possible that the Sherlock isn't named yet, but if it were a Treo, wouldn't Sprint put "Treo" on the list? So, assuming that it is, indeed, a new device, let's look at what clues to it's characteristics the name gives us.
Palm Inc. named their devices strictly by letters and numbers between the time of the 3com buyout and the release of Palm OS 5.0- no words. Afterwards, beginning with the Tungsten T, Palm named it's devices with names that represented something about the device. The "T" stood for Travel, the T|W stood for Wireless, the "E" stood for Economic, etc. The only time since the Pilot that Palm named the device itself, and not a series, with a real word is the LifeDrive, using the slogan, "What drives your life?". The name and slogan reflected how Palm wanted the LifeDrive to be a center for your life, with a list of things it could do posted prominently on the packaging (music, movies, docs, email, etc.). Partially from the the single-word name, I contend that the Sherlock is an extension of the Mobile Manager category. Since the experimental LifeDrive has recently been EOL'd, it's plausible that a device is going to replace it soon. Palm may be focused on Treo smartphones, but as Alan said in the podcast, they are a mobile computing company, not a smartphone company. The LifeDrive was as much a mobile computer as any Palm, perhaps even more so because of it's HDD.
So, what could the name "Sherlock" mean? The only Sherlock of real reputation is Sherlock Holmes, the famous fictional detective. What characteristics did he have? He was very clever, and could learn things from facts his peers were oblivious to, because he had trained himself to do so. He could figure out how information was relevant to whatever he was researching, regardless of whether or not it seemed to even matter. He was very intelligent. Now, compare these traits with Jeff Hawkins' description of his pet project:
I always think of mobile computing as personal computing. This long-term vision has led us through everything -- first the organizers and now through the smart phone space. It's like everything a personal computer is. Continue down that path. What are the implications of a world where everyone has a super high-speed Internet connection in their pocket and many gigabytes of storage, super-fast processors, audio, visual and multimedia? What are the consequences of that? How will that change computing when you have all that stuff available to you all the time? I try to think into the future. That's how we come up with new products. So I'm not going to tell you what it is, but it's following the consequences of mobile computing.This device has super-fast processors- the chief piece of hardware that allows computers to be (almost) genuinely intelligent. It has access to A/V input and the Internet all the time. Yes, the Treo falls into the category, but it's far from revolutionary. It's apparent that Jeff is leaving things out of his description of the so-called Hawk, or he'd just say it's a Treo. So, let's pair things that we know about Jeff Hawkins and the Hawk together with the characteristics of the name Sherlock.
First, Jeff's hobby is brain research. He studies how the brain interacts with the world around it, and it's been assumed for some time now that that research will play a significant role in the development of the Hawk.
Second, the thing that keeps the Treo, with it's A/V input and Internet connection, from being as smart as Sherlock is the lack of knowledge of how the brain works. Sherlock Holmes understood human nature and was able to use that to solve mysteries.
The Hawk will also be able to do this, by learning from it's surroundings and your use habits what you want to do.
Now, the Hawk could still be a long ways off, right? Well, the thing that makes me think that the Sherlock is it is the timing. We know that Palm has been hard at work on both Palm OS II and the Hawk for a long time, and the two surely go together- what's a next-generation device without a next-generation operating system?. We also know that Palm is going to be a sinking ship if they don't get a new OS out this year, preferably before the middle of the year. Palm can't compete with other Windows Mobile devices or the iPhone with an OS that hasn't been updated in two years, and what's a next-gen OS without a next-gen device to take advantage of it? So, I reason that the two must be paired, and Sherlock is a name I would give only to a super-smart next-generation device.
So, that's my take on the Palm Sherlock. What do you think?