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Palm Announces Separated Software Operations
Eharley writes: "'Palm on Monday announced it has completed the split of its operating system division from the rest of the company. The software unit will now report separately on the financial performance of its licensing business, and could eventually be spun off or sold by Palm.'
Yahoo is carrying the story here. Considering that their market share in PDA devices has been slipping, is this a move that will signal the end of the Palm hardware line or organizers?"
Forming a separate software licensing arm, while refusing to license BeOS? Real brainiacs at Palm.
What do you mean, "begin to sell their OS
separately"? Haven't you ever heard of
Handspring?
Ben "You have your mind on computers, it seems."
This is a good move on their part. Palm OS licensees are faced with the conundrum that their OS supplier is also one of their competitors. It's the DSL/ILEC thing all over again. Considering that PDA vendors have the illusion of being able to go to Microsoft for their OS instead (I call it an illusion because Microsoft is a competitior to everyone whether they realize it or not), Palm OS needs to make a better effort to appear hardware-neutral. This is a good way of doing it.
Frankly, I think that console mfrs should do the same thing. Sony and Nintendo should license their console OS's to anyone who wants to build the boxes (imagine the variety we'd see!).
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they have money for development, then we'll see some great enhancements to the Palm OS, and I for one will welcome the change
And what are the great enhancements that should be added to the Palm OS? If Windows CE has some feature, it is called bloated PC legacy crap. If Palm OS adds a feature, it is considered an elegant, fundamanetal feature of pocket organizers.
cpeterso
It's wrong to think that every business automatically uses it's products to boost each other.
It may make very solid financial sence for palm to take steps to ensure their hardware and software sections are financially and legally separated. Maybe the COULD sell more palm devices if they used other software.. and maybe they could make more on software if they weren't stuck with a single platform.
This way.. if one fails, the other can go on.
I think this is probably a very reasonable move, which allows not only the hardware division to experiment with possible altnerate OS's -- including linux, beos, and probably qnx
But it makes more sense from a sub-licensor standpoint, in that the money you pay isn't necessary going to your direct competitor.
It sort of levels the playing field
Old age and treachery almost always overcome youth and skill.
Palm is not going to stop making there PDA's. I just recieved an email from them the other day stating the they have a new device comming out. It did not state what it was, or when it would be out but none the less it stated that they are getting ready to put out a new device. Would they pull out of the PDA market after releasing a new PDA, I think not.
"Really, I'm not out to destroy Microsoft. That will just be a completely unintentional side effect." Linus Torvalds
From where I am standing I see many more PDA devices running PalmOS. Microsoft may have the marketing power to create the illusion that they have big market share, but in reality any other company would be dead if it was based on moving an OS. The competition here has to be on PocketPC Vs. PalmOS Vs. ???. (Because for one thing Microsoft does not provide any hardware to run their PocketPC OS on). In reality I would bet that their are 50 PalmOS related devices sold for every 1 CE/PocketPC device.
Now do I think that Palm is slacking in their Hardware provisions and enhancments....Hell yes I do...But they are the AOL of the PDA world -- and it wont matter how many bells and whistles they have to compete with -- they still will be the king of the hill.
(+1 Funny) only if I laugh out loud.
I do think that the O/S division being separate is a good thing so if the bozos (former Apple people who have apparently learned nothing about inventory management) that now run Palm screw up again, it is available as a ready-sale item which will keep Palm O/S viable.
Now if we can keep Handspring from shooting itself in the foot (No more Springboard Slots -- WHAT A DUMB IDEA), then the non-MS PDA market can continue to flourish.
Springboard cool thing of the month is MemPlugs which allow your Handspring to have up to 256MB of RAM. Now that is cool and very usefull for walknetting things from point a to point b.
-- Multics
The problem for Palm is that their hardware business has a stronger consumer presence than their software. They also appear to have been asleep at the wheel for some time, while Microsoft was busy reinventing the PDA, Palm have not done anything of note since the Palm VII which is still as big and bulky as ever.
Palm are in a hole because Microsoft are producing a pocket computer while Palm are producing a single purpose appliance.
The problem with a Palm is that is appeals to the same people who used their Filofaxes in the 1980s, those obnoxious organized people who can actually remember to charge the damn thing each night. The Palm VII could have been the answer - a PDA and comunicator in one. Unfortunately using a Palm VII is a bit like using a dual boot Linux/Windows PC. It can play Tombraider, or it can run Gnome but not both at once. Same with the Palm VII, it can download email from Palm net, but it does not integrate seamlessly into my corporate mail system, not without some plugin in the sever my IT dept would never install.
The pocket PC on the other hand is not just a PDA, it has Word and Excell and Outlook. It also has an MP3 player that looks pretty solidly aimed at the consumer market.
So OK at the moment there are relatively few consumers with $500 to spend on a pocket PC, but within a year that price will be $300 and the year after $200. There are an awful lot more consumers interested in a consumer gadget than are interested in a cheap PDA.
OK so you can buy lots of software to make a Palm do the same as a PocketPC - only no MP3 output as there is no audio output. The problem is that by the time you do that you have spent more than you would for the PocketPC and you have a processor that is a third the speed and a third the amount of RAM.
The problem for Palm Software is that they have to quickly get to the point where they can make their platform as a package match Pocket PC. They may be able to buy in some software from third parties and bundle. As things stand they are playing Lotus 123 to Microsoft Office.
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At the end of the day, more than 80% of handhelds sold run Palm OS.
If want a handful of Slashdot nerds to use your software, you write it for some iPaq running Linux.
If you want a few gadget freaks to use your software, you write it for Wince/Pocket PC.
If you want your aunt and your grandma and the whole rest of the world to use your software, you write it for Palm OS.
In the handheld market, MS is nothing but fancy marketing. This is why hardware companies license Palm OS.
This should make sense: Execution, as always, will play a major role in the success or failure:
1) Hardware division's now free - though more accountable - to create excellent hardware solutions. (My hope is they innovate, but don't create solutions to problems that don't exist [e.g. the MPEG 4-playing, holographic projector model with purple inverse backlighting].)
They may even, as a poster had mentioned, be able to license WinCE, another OS, or at least parts / applications thereof where they were not able to do previously.
Could/would they also license hardware technology from Sony and others?
2) Software division's now free to find additional licensees, not get (completely) hand-tied for what they can and can't do based solely on what one hardware platform provider is giving them.
In this respect, I'd love to see what the folks from Be have in store for OS 5.5 ...
The overall / corporate unit needs to ensure the software / licensing division is careful when licensees start canibalizing their own sales rather than increasing marketshare for the Palm platform. (c.f. the Apple clone market)
As a user, my hope is they keep the Palm a vital platform - this should help do that, but let's hope they keep their eye on the ball.
In the computer industry, the money is ALWAYS in software rather than hardware ... The marginal cost for an additional copy of Palm OS, or Tony Hawk 2.5X, or whatever, is practically nothing;
Margins can be better on software, and the cost of duplication is certainly cheaper, but Intel and Cisco, e.g., have done fairly well for themselves primarily as hardware vendors.
Also, market saturation will reach the hardware market for PDAs much faster than the software market ... Eventually, devices will reach sufficient power and size that continual advancement is senseless ...
Again, can't disagree with your overall thinking, but - Couldn't the same be said for the desktop and possibly even server market? i.e. that the machines are getting (have gotten) so immensely powerful that people simply won't buy new ones anymore?
Part of the reason why this doesn't happen, unfortunately, is that the software developers and programmers continue to 1) push existing processing performance capabilities, and/or 2) write ineficient code. In my experience, it's been a combination of those two, with the stress on 2).
If done well (Apple and Sun have done this well, IMO), running both hardware and software shops (to whatever extent) can work well for the company and the consumer.
But things got a bit better, and stablizing. But that still doesn't fix the initial problems that Palm has.
1. Margins on PalmOS devices are quite low compared to PocketPC ones. If you ever wondered why they still make PPC's when Palm has 75%+ market is that they don't have to sell that many to make the same amount of money. Compaq has to only sell 1 iPaq to equal Palm selling 6 m100's.
2. They still lack penetration in the enterprise market, which all the big $$$ are made. This is partially due to the advantage that PPC has with their PocketWord/Outlook/Excel, which allows for pretty seamless transfer in the organization.
3. They haven't been that innovative, and their OS lags behind PPC in the networking/wireless division (which is the "cool" thing nowadays)
4. As some mentioned, outdated hardware specs. MS, for PPC2002, has spec'ed them quite high (hi-res TFT screen, 206 StrongARM CPU, 32+ megs of mem, etc).
Splitting the company CAN be good, but only if they utilize their time and resources as efficient as possible to address these 4 points. If not, I should sell the rest of my stock tomorrow.
I've owned a PalmOS machine for 6 years (yeah, since the pilot1000), but right now, I'm seriously looking to get a PPC machine. PPC has caught up to the point that to choose between a Palm and a PPC, Palm doesn't really make any compelling arguments, hardware or software-wise.
The 4k Memo limit
The lack of a standard interface to link data points from the basic apps together (such as linking the note fields from datebook and todo lists with the notebook app)
I really like my Palm device, and I admire its simplicity, but even without comparing against other PDAs I think Palm Inc is overdue on making the underlying OS a little more powerful and flexible. Particularly in light of the remaining challenges of PocketPC and PSION, and the new designs of Linux-based PDAs.
The PDA market isn't looking for a computer that needs to be replaced every three years. You should think of it as a consumer device like a VCR or TV, replaced every 5 to 7 years. Hopefully Palm realizes this. They should start to see the repeat business in the next 2 to 3 years.
I've had my Palm Pro since 97, with one hardware upgrade to add extra memory and the IR port. The only reason I bought it was that I knew if I broke or lost it I could restore everything to the latest model. I have a fixed set of applications that cover all my daily note taking, contacts and reminders.
Color would be nice but there is no extra functionality with it. A higher resolution would help reading text documents. However it works the way it is. I'd rather have the battery life.
If I need more complex processing or better graphics, and so on, I'll switch to my laptop or workstation. The PocketPC holds no appeal for me.
Palm made a consumer device that matched what people wanted. Repeat business will happen if Palm keeps their head, brand loyalty still exists.
- AndrewN