1SRC Podcast 167

[Alan G]

This week I walk you through the Treo 755p 1.07 maintenance update and we cover the latest Centro launch news and rumors. [details (http://www.1src.com/?m=show&id=2042)]

[freakmarket]

I just wanted to respond real quick to your concern about the upcoming Palm o/s 2 being targeted at consumers instead of the business people.

I am thinking Palm will be trying to compete with all the entertainment based cell devices out there ... I wouldn't be too concerned with that ... being that it is a Linux build I am betting a bunch of linux programmers will be porting all kinds of business type software quickly after the release. Hopefully you can can get all the business type support through third parties. I would be more worried about cell carriers trying to control too much of the o/s.

As a quick comment if Palm's first second gen o/s device is a Treo rehash like the 650 to the Centro i will toss myself (or maybe Palm) off a cliff. That form factor needs to retire.

If it's not functional and pretty Palm will die. If they can nail a good design i think we might see forces rallying to Palm's battle cry. Much like the community surrounding the new Asus Eee mini notebooks.

chris@pdalive.com

[tk_421]

The problem here is that only 10% of Palm owners install third party applications on their devices, even less so for the Treo.

I am thinking that the next Palm os will be much more of an all-in-one OS, something between a feature phone and a smartphone.

If you're looking for a mobile platform with plenty of third party apps, much like Palm in its heydays, look for Apple. They are now taking over both the smartphone and PDA markets. There is even a rumor of a larger mobile device that will sport the same mobile os as the iphone and ipod touch.

I know if I'd be a developper, I would rather have my work benefit millions of users than the limited PalmOS market share. The screen size of Palm's current devices makes using third party apps irrelevant anyway.


I just wanted to respond real quick to your concern about the upcoming Palm o/s 2 being targeted at consumers instead of the business people.

I am thinking Palm will be trying to compete with all the entertainment based cell devices out there ... I wouldn't be too concerned with that ... being that it is a Linux build I am betting a bunch of linux programmers will be porting all kinds of business type software quickly after the release. Hopefully you can can get all the business type support through third parties. I would be more worried about cell carriers trying to control too much of the o/s.

As a quick comment if Palm's first second gen o/s device is a Treo rehash like the 650 to the Centro i will toss myself (or maybe Palm) off a cliff. That form factor needs to retire.

If it's not functional and pretty Palm will die. If they can nail a good design i think we might see forces rallying to Palm's battle cry. Much like the community surrounding the new Asus Eee mini notebooks.

chris@pdalive.com

[intellidryad]

As a quick comment if Palm's first second gen o/s device is a Treo rehash like the 650 to the Centro i will toss myself (or maybe Palm) off a cliff. That form factor needs to retire.


I think there is a 99.99% possibility that Palm will reuse that old form factor. First of all, they strongly believe it's the best smartphone form factor ever (no matter what we say here). Second, they would take all the phone releases with that similar QWERTY under screen design (MOTO Q, hTC/T-mobile dash, some blackberries... ) as proof that that old form factor is "perfect".

So, don't hold your breath here.

[Alan G]

You all know that I like Palm's solutions. But they have gotten stale. I hate saying that, but it is true. I was really looking forward to the Foleo and the potential productivity gains that I envisioned myself benefiting from. (For more on that front, check out my new editorial going up later this week.)

Palm has had some serious problem getting product out to market and with the development of a new mobile operating system. I think that the software is more important than the hardware. (I'm perfectly happy with the current candy bar deign of the Treo 750/755p.)

If Palm is going to survive, as a company, then their last hope is with the folks coming in from Elevation Partners. My hope is that they will shake up the company and get them back on track to delivering truly thoughtful products that empower their customers to do whatever it is they want to do on a mobile platform. If the folks from EP can't pull of a turn around for Palm, they should just sell the company and have the last one out the door turn off the lights.

Alan G

[rolandrsr]

Alan,
I have to agree with you and at the point of sounding out loud, going the direction of where Jeff Kirvin is at these days. Palm needs to really turn around the current status. I hope that Elevation Partners is willing to do what is necessary to turn things around. I went with the Tilt because of that and the fact that Palm developers have really stopped doing anything with the Garnet software. The clock is ticking....

[freakmarket]

If Palm is going for anything short of a mini computer like feel on a handheld like an all in one device it will fail ... I definatly agree with the all in one concept.

If only 10% of users add 3rd party apps why is Palm waisting so much time on backwards emulation. Shouldn't they be looking to the future?

The N series Internet tablets seem real close to a PDA like device with the Internet packaged in but missing key PIM features.

I am afraid for palm at the moment because Apple is about to release the sdk for the iPhone and the iPod touch. It is just a hair away from being a full fledged PDA. I am tapping this out on my Touch right now. Once software developers start developing look out!