Palm responds to iPhone

[MacBytes]

Category: Apple Hardware
Link: Palm responds to iPhone
Description:: none

Posted on MacBytes.com
Approved by Mudbug

[Silencio]

Industry analysts have said that the Apple phone will force the industry to shift its focus from hardware to software design.

I hope so. The software that powers every "smart phone" on the market today is utterly primitive and clunky. Windows Mobile, all the various iterations of Symbian and Linux, and Palm OS. And don't get me started on Flash Lite... ugh! Software is where Apple really will be 5 years ahead of the competition, though given the sorry state of mobile OSes and the companies that develop then, maybe 10 years ahead is more accurate.

I admit I still have a bit of a soft spot for Palm; I still use a Tungsten T3 daily, and was considering getting a Treo 680 to tide me over until the second or third generation iPhone, but I just feel like I'm stuck in 1999 using Palm OS. That, and they more or less abandoned the Mac market, leaving their hotsync software in a kludgy disarray.

Palm has got to make some clean breaks with the past if they want to build a new mobile OS for the future. But given the uncertainty about their future as a company, who knows if this new project will ever hit the market.

[dontmatter]

Remind me why apple decided to announce the phone 6 months before it ships? Way to jump start the competition, Apple.

[Porco]

Originally Posted by dontmatter

Remind me why apple decided to announce the phone 6 months before it ships?

The stated reason was because they wanted to announce it to the world rather than the FCC, to whom they had to submit it before its release. Which makes sense.

[nagromme]

Originally Posted by dontmatter

Remind me why apple decided to announce the phone 6 months before it ships? Way to jump start the competition, Apple.

Fear not. What others can bring to market in 6 months starting from zero will be a poor subsitute for what Apple can bring to market 6 months after a working public prototype.

And then they will sit on their hands while Apple readies the next generation

[steve_hill4]

Originally Posted by Silencio

I admit I still have a bit of a soft spot for Palm; I still use a Tungsten T3 daily, and was considering getting a Treo 680 to tide me over until the second or third generation iPhone, but I just feel like I'm stuck in 1999 using Palm OS. That, and they more or less abandoned the Mac market, leaving their hotsync software in a kludgy disarray.

Palm has got to make some clean breaks with the past if they want to build a new mobile OS for the future. But given the uncertainty about their future as a company, who knows if this new project will ever hit the market.

I too still have a soft spot for Palm, even though I rarely use my Zire 72 at the moment. I think the iPhone will find it's way into my pocket maybe in Rev. B or C, but I would only consider Palm if they came up with something similar with BT, Wi-fi, full touchscreen etc. Even then, I don't think it would quite reach the iPhone.

I still think Palm have one of the best, if not the best, mobile OS. I would however say it's currently in its System 7 phase, slowly going out of date, stagnating in development and in need of a complete rewrite. If they decide not to take up the Linux option Garnet (Palm) OS developers Access are working on at the moment, they are either stuck with an ageing OS or will fully switch to WM6. Either way, they would lose a lot of business, including me.

When Apple went OS X and Microsoft are considering a similar clean break, perhaps Palm needs to follow suit and come up with an iPhone competitor which is a complete break with the past and targets those who haven't really used their products before.