Windows Phone Thoughts: How Microsoft and Palm Got Together & 5 Reasons Why Palm Fell From Grace

"Microsoft's truce with Palm, its longtime rival in palmtop software, was forged with a rare agreement to allow Palm to tinker with the Windows Mobile software. . . . But Mr. Gates said a partnership made no sense until Microsoft was well along in developing Windows Mobile 5.0, which it released in May. "Palm always did great work," he said. "We lusted after some of the things they did well and wanted to combine them with some of the things that we did well." Initially, Microsoft resisted the idea of allowing Palm to differentiate the way Windows Mobile worked on the Treo, but eventually relented. . . . "This is unique," Mr. Gates said. "Most people take Windows as it is." Both companies contributed development and expertise to the project. . ."

The New York Times has an interesting article about how Palm have been allowed to tweak the Windows Mobile OS for their Treo. I don't believe that the current WM OEMs have any choice over taking 'Windows as it is', so perhaps this will open the door to more differentiation between vendors. One of the joys of WM software is that it should work on all devices, but with square aspect screens and these new systems extensions, perhaps that won't be the case in the future? But, isn't over-tweaking their OS one of the things that got Palm into trouble in the first place? This ZDNet article lists the reasons why they think Palm lost it. Basically Palm were ahead, but fumbled the ball and no-one plays catch-up like Microsoft. Anyway, it still feels odd to be posting Palm stories under 'News' rather than 'The competition". ;-)