Great editoral Bob, and I wholeheartedly agree with most of your points.
1. The PDA isn't dead, it's
evolving. I wrote about the "Hype Cycle" at Tapland
here (shameless plug
). Mobile entertainment and convergence with traditional PIM, combined with wireless communications is where PDAs are heading IMHO. Also, see
this article by Michael Gartenberg of Jupiter Research.
Quote:
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The personal digital assistant (PDA) marketplace has increasingly trifurcated in terms of functionality and that’s likely to continue. We see the three functionality forks as follows: basic PDA functionality; basic PDA functionality with media centricity; and basic PDA functionality together with media centricity and wireless features.
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2. PalmOne is stumbling a bit, but I highly doubt they are doomed as all of the "gloom and doomers" are predicting. I am a bit uncomfortable with PalmOne's myopic focus on "smartphones". Even though I am a Treo 600 owner myself, they have their limitations (small screen size).
3. IMHO PalmSource is laying the groundwork to put themselves in a position where Palm OS/Linux could potentially become the dominant handheld computing, wireless handset, and embedded Linux systems OS of choice.
Brian