In a letter today to Palm developers, Palm President Ed Colligan wrote to restate that the Windows Mobile Treo announcement is not a sign that PalmOS support is not going to remain strong.
Ed Colligan says "I'm writing to you today because I'm concerned by the number of posts I've read that suggest that Palm's support of Palm OS is either wavering or short-lived. It is neither.
I thought I had made this perfectly clear with earlier statements, but let me reiterate that our announcement on Sept. 26th that we'll broaden our line of Treo smartphones to include ones made on the Windows Mobile platform is all about growing the Treo market. We want to deliver the Palm experience on Windows Mobile, strengthen our company's ability to deliver ever-more capable solutions and answer current and potential customers' requests for a Windows Mobile-based product from Palm. This is not a zero-sum game! This market is in its infancy, and if we can expand our opportunities by being a strong cross-platform provider of world-class smartphone products, then we should do so. At the same time, this does not mean we need to walk away from our existing products or technology partnerships, like Palm OS."
In this letter, he emphasized that the existing huge market of businesses with a Microsoft infrastructure was too much to walk away from, and that entering that market does not mean that the PalmOS side of the business has to suffer. That makes some sense because the extra effort on the Windows Mobile side of the market could very well be supported by all the extra revenue to expand Palm resources. One cannot help but wonder if the Windows Mobile products would be a distraction that takes away from PalmOS efforts, but it's great to hear that there is still a commitment to PalmOS.
It sounds like more than just a marketing sleight of hand to me, and I think Ed is sincerely speaking about Palm's direction. Some slight doubt, though, will still remain until we see it played out in the next few years. The need to protect near term PalmOS device sales would certainly color Palm's portrayal of their intentions. And his argument to persuade us to believe in Palm's commitment to PalmOS appears to be rather weak... "We have sold more than 30 million Palm OS-based products over the years, and it is not our intent to walk away from such a strong and loyal user base. That's why in May we extended our license for Palm OS, giving us the right to continue to make and market Palm OS-based products until 2010." It doesn't even touch on the potential market shift due to the Access acquisition of PalmSource.
Nonetheless, there is still money to be made in the PalmOS market, there truly is a loyal customer and developer base, and there's every reason to expect a successful PalmOS for Linux which should bring a competitive edge in the fight for share in the market for Linux devices.
Ed, I'm convinced that PalmOS has a strong future and that Palm desires to stay committed to PalmOS in one form or the other. But there are still a lot of question marks that remain.