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Palm Announces Separated Software Operations

Posted by timothy on from the wish-they'd-license-be-through-palm dept.

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?"

2 of 187 comments (clear)

  1. Palm's (and Handspring's) problem... by Wakko+Warner · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ... is that they made their PDAs work *too* well. Think of it this way: everyone who wants a Palm Pilot has one by now and, if they're anything like any of my friends, they're in no hurry to "upgrade", even to a color screen. Palm's gear is great for the tasks it's designed to perform, and, unfortunately for Palm, there's really no constant need to upgrade like there is for a PC. People who bought Palm Pilots 2 years ago are still in no hurry to replace them, unless they've got a bit of disposable cash laying around (and who does, these days?)

    - A.P.

    --
    "Remember when the U.S. had a drug problem, and then we declared a War On Drugs, and now you can't buy drugs anymore?"
  2. Re:Interesting... by juuri · · Score: 4, Interesting

    "At the end of the day, more than 80% of handhelds sold run Palm OS"

    This is no longer mid 2000. At the start of 2001 WinCE had quickly grown from 7% to 10% marketshare. Currently PalmOS devices account for around 70% market share. You can verify this by checking the PDFs of companies that recommend buying options on PDA stocks. WinCE devices are around 26% with the rest taken up by the extremely small players.

    7% December/00 to 26% January/02. That is quite a shift isn't it?

    --
    --- I do not moderate.