Thursday, May 26, 2005
Where PalmSource Went Wrong
Posted by Ed Hansberry in "THE COMPETITION" @ 10:30 AM
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0%2C1759%2C1819265%2C00.asp
Recall that PalmSource is the operating system side of the Palm family, which is where I have always had my complaints with the PalmOS system. Much of the hardware over the years has been compelling and innovative, especially early HandSpring devices, Handera/TRG Pro devices and the later Sony models. All the cool hardware in the world though doesn't make up for an operating system lacking in core functionality.
Guy Kewney at eWeek has a similar take on the platform but goes all the way back to the US Robotics days to understand not only where it went wrong, but why.
This is somewhat related to my May 11 "pa1mOne Figuring It Out" post. By the way, if you haven't heard it, you should listen to Jeff Kirvin's 1src podcast on the LifeDrive where he blasts me and a number of our readers that responded in my thread. According to Jeff, Garnet (PalmOS5) and pa1mOne can already do everything Windows Mobile can and Windows Mobile 2005 is the operating system playing catch up. When you listen to the podcast though, you'll see how this trickery takes place. To match the capabilities of any Windows Mobile device, even going back to WM2003SE, you have to pick and choose features from multiple devices while no single device has all of the features, and worse, no single device can, no matter how much third party software and hardware you pile on it. This has always been the beauty of Windows Mobile devices. There is a core set of functionality that covers email, PIM, office productivity, multimedia, networking, etc. that is on every single device made. You are basically left with choices for style, which wireless radios (GPRS, EVDO, WiFi, Bluetooth) and which screen resolution you want. And for the record, a Microsoft Project program has been available for Windows Mobile devices for as long as I can remember, and it amazes me to this day that one isn't available for the PalmOS. I use Pocket Plan almost every day and have for several years. Perhaps there is one for PalmOS and Jeff is incorrect about that too.
Recall that PalmSource is the operating system side of the Palm family, which is where I have always had my complaints with the PalmOS system. Much of the hardware over the years has been compelling and innovative, especially early HandSpring devices, Handera/TRG Pro devices and the later Sony models. All the cool hardware in the world though doesn't make up for an operating system lacking in core functionality.
Guy Kewney at eWeek has a similar take on the platform but goes all the way back to the US Robotics days to understand not only where it went wrong, but why.
This is somewhat related to my May 11 "pa1mOne Figuring It Out" post. By the way, if you haven't heard it, you should listen to Jeff Kirvin's 1src podcast on the LifeDrive where he blasts me and a number of our readers that responded in my thread. According to Jeff, Garnet (PalmOS5) and pa1mOne can already do everything Windows Mobile can and Windows Mobile 2005 is the operating system playing catch up. When you listen to the podcast though, you'll see how this trickery takes place. To match the capabilities of any Windows Mobile device, even going back to WM2003SE, you have to pick and choose features from multiple devices while no single device has all of the features, and worse, no single device can, no matter how much third party software and hardware you pile on it. This has always been the beauty of Windows Mobile devices. There is a core set of functionality that covers email, PIM, office productivity, multimedia, networking, etc. that is on every single device made. You are basically left with choices for style, which wireless radios (GPRS, EVDO, WiFi, Bluetooth) and which screen resolution you want. And for the record, a Microsoft Project program has been available for Windows Mobile devices for as long as I can remember, and it amazes me to this day that one isn't available for the PalmOS. I use Pocket Plan almost every day and have for several years. Perhaps there is one for PalmOS and Jeff is incorrect about that too.
