Palm is dead. How many times have we heard that? It almost rings completely hollow after so many false alarms. But now we hear it said by Access, the company that owns PalmOS. The hardware company Palm, Inc may be okay, but our beloved PalmOS is in trouble.
From
Computer Business Review,
"A spokesperson for Access told Computer Business Review that a logical end-of-life is expected for the Palm operating system (OS) and that the company anticipates being able to offer an integrated OS solution "sitting on top of a Linux kernel".
These statements confirm the impression garnered at the time of the acquisition that Access's strategic interest in acquiring PalmSource was in getting its hands on the Linux development capabilities PalmSource acquired at the end of last year when it bought China Mobilesoft."
The article concludes that "...while the Access spokesperson pointed out that Palm had also renewed its deal with PalmSource for supply of the OS through 2009 just prior to the acquisition by Access, the writing is clearly on the wall for what was once the last word in mobile device operating systems."
It sounds like it's almost time to put the nail in coffin, doesn't it? There are still some long shot possibilities....
1) Access is going to produce a pda/smartphone platform called by another name, so even though it's basically PalmOS for Linux, they want to distance themselves from the Palm name which is owned by Palm, Inc anyway. I don't think this is the case, though, because if they were planning to do a continuation of PalmOS, they probably would have unveiled a new name and said it continues the great PalmOS tradition. This approach doesn't make any sense if PalmOS is living on over Linux.
2) Palm, Inc could probably still purchase the rights to PalmOS outright and maintain it themselves. But I don't see that happening either. They have a contract for PalmOS through 2009, and that's more than enough time to dump it altogether. Even if they wanted to continue development on PalmOS, they probably only would do that if they could hire on the development team, which would probably be ruled out in any purchase agreement with Access. Just doesn't look likely.
3) PalmOS is "given" to the development community to live on as open source. This is not likely either, as it would be handing over too much intellectual property.
4) PalmOS is sold to another competitor. I doubt it, but it is possible.
5) The story could be misleading. Yeah, and I might win the lottery tomorrow also.
I still hope that PalmOS has a bright future, but with this news for the owner of PalmOS, I think it's time for me to keep an eye out for a Linux or Win Mobile device. While I won't say "RIP" yet, it sure doesn't look good.
Still, as Jeff Kirvin has said in the past, no matter what happens, and no matter how fast PalmOS dies in terms of new products, the Palm device you have in your hand will continue to work. The PalmOS community is here to stay for a long long time.
Thanks to Lindsey Dyson from
Palm Addicts for this important scoop. If you want evidence of the strength of the ongoing PalmOS community, be sure to stop over and visit them.
Update: According to one of the comments at the Engadget post, Ed Hardy of Brighthand wrote the following:
Quote:
I've spoken with PalmSource and the CBR article is completely incorrect.
As Shawn and Craig pointed out, the next version of the Palm OS will be based on Linux. But it will still run Palm OS applications and have the Palm OS look and feel.
PalmSource is working to get CBR to retract the article.
Ed Hardy
Editor-in-Chief
Brighthand.com
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I consider Ed to be a very reliable and very thorough reporter of these things, so this is probably all just a mistake. Phwew!