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Palm OS 5.0 Preview
Propane sent in an
excerpt from Palm's Palm OS 5.0 Preview
"Palm OS 5, the latest version of the world's leading mobile platform, redefines market expectations and creates new opportunities for licensees, for developers, and for end users. In addition to supporting ARM®-compliant processors from industry leaders Intel, Motorola, and Texas Instruments, Palm OS 5 also enhances multimedia capabilities, incorporates a suite of robust security options, and expands support for wireless connections. In providing these new capabilities, Palm OS 5 builds a foundation for the future of mobile computing while also maintaining compatibility with existing software. "
The article's fairly thin on detail. Other than the obvious and much-anticipated port to ARM, does anyone have any details on other new features? What are the new 'multimedia' features? How have they implemented this 'robust security'?
Most importantly, will Palm still be freely allowing development by releasing the SDK for free? (the move to ARM might have given them an opportunity to switch from gcc, thereby making this a question)
PenguiNet: the (shareware) Windows SSH client
I am not a patent lawyer, but what about Xerox's patent on the Graffiti technology? With all due respect to Palm for making a popular product, Xerox patented the technology that makes them the most popular. Plus, Palm sales are down 44%, and people are wanting to get the flashier HP PDA's these days. I remain skeptical over how much this can improve. Palms are pretty good for the amount of money they are (although Visors are better), but they really cannot compare to the HP-Jordana series and the Compaq iPaq, not to mention all these Linux PDAs that are coming out.
I wonder if Handspring will continue software development/upgrades for their rumored end of life for the Visor Handheld. I'd like to see OS 5 on my Visor.
~.Evanrude
It's not a big surprise that Palm's products are losing market share, and quickly. Where they were once popular and led the market, that market share has eroded to competitors running Windows CE, which, though higher priced, has had more attractive features (like interoperability with most Microsoft products).
I have three Palms, including a VIIx (for which they're charging too much, thus killing it, but that's another story), but I think my next PDA won't be a Palm. I haven't seen much from them that would entice me to buy a new model. The i405 was a disappointment--using memory sticks instead of CF cards was a major factor in me rejecting it for a purchase.
Anyway, I digress. I like Palms, don't get me wrong. But I'm not sure if the combination of Palm OS 5 arriving late to the game as well as the high cost and relatively small feature set of the Palm line will allow it to survive.
Karma: Excellent Birds (mostly as a result of listening to Laurie Anderson)
No screenshots, no specifics, just a lot of buzzwords arranged in Mad Libs style order.
I'll bet it's only half as good as OS X.
From the press releases, it's not clear that Palm is addressing any of these issues. OS5 claims no more functionality than you can get on a Sony right now. What about a real window system? What about a real file system? What about a real database? What about 32bit addressing and memory protection? Support for 320x320 screens and some audio and bluetooth APIs isn't going to hack it.
Altogether, OS5 may be more of an incremental improvement over previous versions, offering mostly features that companies like Handera and Sony have already offered on their Palm devices. That may simply not be enough to succeed in the market, given that it's competing against both WinCE and Linux on some nifty hardware.
Well, at least, ARM-based Palms may end up being a nice platform to port Linux to, and it may become available at fire-sale prices if things keep on going this way.
Unfortunately, those who need to get real work done don't want "hackable" and they couldn't care less about the "geek factor" of running Linux, X and GTK+. They care about having a handheld that is small, light, stores all their information and is simple and quick to use. This is the segment that Palm is trying to target, and they do very well with these people. I have a Palm Vx and a Pocket PC device (Jornada 720) and disregarding bulk (the Pocket PC devices are huge), I'd choose the Palm any day because it's the best tool for storing contacts, notes, TODO lists, my calendar and the like. It just works, and it works well.
Incidentally, this is why Palm sales are so slow - the Palm you bought 2 years ago still works perfectly and quickly, so there's no reason to upgrade.
Every once in a while I like to masturbate a new word into my vocabulary, even if I don't know what it means.
Is Palm now joining the list of IT vendors that created innovative, best-selling products, then sat back and shot themselves repeatedly in the foot with poor marketing, poor execution, and greed? And all the while Bill Gates stood (stands) in the background laughing his head off, knowing that Microsoft's slow, steady effort would eventually pass and crush the innovator?
sPh
Sorry but a pda doesn't need to play mpeg video, display in 32 bit color, and have 3d accelerated OpenGl support.
If more customers are willing to spend more money for PDAs that play mpeg video, display in 32-bit color with accelerated 3-D graphics and can remove unsightly body hair, then that's what PDA makers are going to produce. And those who don't will go out of business.
That's just the way life is.
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers. -- Pablo Picasso
I've been using Palm devices since 2/16/99, when I finagled a 50% discount on a Palm III at Staples (and subsequently helped others do the same). Since then I've owned a IIIxe, a Vx, an m500 and an m505, and have been pleased with all of them except the m505. Poor illumination killed it for me, though spending so many years at the same resolution should have done it.
I went out this weekend and upgraded to the Sony Clié 615, and I've never been happier. 16MB RAM, 320x320x16 resolution, continuously variable brightness control, Memory Stick slot (with a flickering drive light beside it!), polyphonic sound, and one absolutely thrilled user.
The OS is flashable, so I expect I'll upgrade to 5.0 when the time comes, but I've seen the future of Palm hardware, and it ain't at Palm Computing.
Discussion Topic 1: Palm OS 5.0 supports display resolutions "from 160x160 pixels to multiples of 160x160 pixels." That takes in my 320x320 display, but it raises an interesting point: What is the ideal aspect ratio of a handheld device? Pocket PC and others use quarter-VGA, while Palm devices use this square format (which on a Clié provides 33% more pixels than QVGA). Any opinions on which display format is more ergonomic for a handheld, or for a desktop for that matter?
Discussion Topic 1½: I have nearly three hundred ebooks sitting on my 128MB Memory Stick right now, with room for another couple hundred, and I love reading from my Clié. My question is this: why would anyone buy a dedicated ebook reader, unless it were simply too cheap to turn down?
None, if you ask me.
Palm's CEO has been on record saying that his company has no interest in making "handheld computers", preferring to stick with the original plan of making better and better Palm organizers. Its like this guy's first reaction to finding a pot of gold would be to get rid of all the shiny yellow stuff inside it and use the pot to grow a house plant.
IMHO, Palm just doesn't get it. They're missing out on a market worth billions, potentially, all because they cant see past the idea of using their hardware for anything more than a $200 equivalent of a 39 cent paper note pad.
Palm just doesn't seem capable of looking down the road technologically speaking. I don't really think they understand the potential of their own niche. I mean, think about what people carry around on them today. A pager, a cellphone, a PDA. Nothing really stops Palm from designing and delivering a device that does all three of these things in one package. Fortunately, there WILL be a company that realizes where the handheld market is going. Unfortunately, I seriously doubt it will be Palm Inc, a company content on reinventing the Rolodex.
Bowie J. Poag
I'm still using a Palm II, or Personal, or whatever they called it. I think it's still running OS 1. It's Good Enough, so why upgrade?
Best Slashdot Co
I don't get why Palm has to try and one-up PocketPC so much, yet fail to fill the space that PocketPC devices fill.
Just take a look at their product comparison page. For example, they rail the iPaq on battery usage.
I totally agree with them; the iPaq doesn't have a long battery life. But that's not why I bought it... I bought it to have a true HANDHELD PC, and that's what the iPaq is.
Palm's market is for PDA-type devices. Palms are great for storing a few SMALL notes (who can really go quickly using Graffiti?), contact list, and other small things. But you certainly aren't going to get far trying to play Quake on it, terminal service into the domain controller, or pull down highly-compressed DVDs across your 802.11b link to watch them.
I liken Palm right now to a bicycle maker trying out-advertise a car maker; it is totally silly. They are two different markets altogether.
If Palm wanted to start making cars (aka enter the HANDHELD PC market), then they are free to do so. Many will still buy their bicycles (PDAs), but some might choose them for their cars (handheld pcs) as well. In that way, everyone would win. Palm would have a greater range of products and thus more possible sales, and Microsoft would have some real competition in the handheld PC market.
But as things are going, Palm can only pretend to compete with the cars for so long before they get burned. They need to decide very quickly which one (or both) they wanna make and go after the proper market.
Natural != (nontoxic || beneficial)
That out of the way it was a sweet bit o technology, if big and bulky and with handwriting recognition that took a few revs to get worked out.
However it also had NewtonScript which appears to have been a fab development environment and incorperated some really useful ideas about a common OS-service database; something which Palm & MS-Palm folks are now really hurting for.
So, and regardless of the move to ARM processors, I'm wondering if anyone is considering doing a gnuwtonscript and releasing that? I'm well aware that Apple holds that code tightly to it's breast, has no intentions of making it's own palm-device (and so averred in an SEC-regulated announcement last year) and that the Newton folks were soon scattered to the winds after their unit was shut down...
But a decade later it seems to be a thing that would be wildly popular and fit right into the emerging needs of the little beasts.
-- Michael
ps Please feel free to correct me on the details, like I said I was never a Newton-person other then admiring them from afar.
I don't read ACs: If a post isn't worth so much as a nom de plume to its author then I wont bother either.
Palm's market share has dropped from ~71% last year to 58% this year. Handspring's share grew from 14% to 15%, and Sony's share grew from 1% to 6%. Note that this we are talking about the entire handheld market in unit sales, not just PalmOS handhelds. By my figuring, the 3 major PalmOS vendors have about 80% of the market.
Let's put this in perspective, shall we? All PocketPC manufacturers together sell fewer handhelds than Handspring and Sony together. Palm's own handhelds outsell all PocketPC devices combined by almost a factor of 3.
I do think that Palm needs to split off the OS unit into an entirely separate company, to avoid the problem of competing with one's licensees, and I do think Sony (much as I hate their DMCA-loving guts) makes much slicker PalmOS handhelds these days than Palm or Handspring (though my m505 meets my needs).
That said, I don't think Palm is doomed, and I do think there's a real astroturf campaign being waged by Microsoft across the net. Here's a clue - wherever you see "Palm's unit share down 44%! PocketPC revenue share increases by 73%!" someone has an agenda to make Palm look bad - if they weren't trying deliberately to do so, they wouldn't compare apples (unit share of a single PalmOS manufacturer) to oranges (revenue share, i.e. share of total dollars spent, of all PocketPC licensees).
Yes, the number of dollars being spent on PocketPC devices is increasing (still only 26% of total dollars spent on PDAs). This statistic itself is misleading given the much higher prices (and manufacturing costs) of PocketPC devices. Those PocketPC 2002 devices cost a bundle to make; wake me up when a PocketPC manufacturer claims margins close to those of any PalmOS manufacturer.
I'm not saying Palm couldn't lose their lead in market share to PocketPC handhelds. I'm just saying they haven't lost it yet, nor are they doomed to lose it barring some extraordinarily shady tactic from Microsoft (e.g. deliberately breaking all PalmOS hotsync capabilities in their next OS - something that won't happen unless MS greases enough palms to repeal all the antitrust legislation we've got).
Others have made the adequately made the points that PocketPC devices are still usability nightmares compared to Palms, and so are really only selling to extreme gearheads who "need" that colorful battery-sucking brick to impress the neighbors/vendors/clients/ladies. "But look! You can watch the Matrix on it! All I had to do was hook my VCR to my computer, encode the video into a 15fps MPEG file, which I stored on my $300 microdrive, which fits into the CompactFlash expansion sleeve, which fits on my iPaq like so! Of course, I can't watch the whole movie on a single battery charge unless I use the PCMCIA sleeve which has an extra battery and more than doubles the thickness, but look!! Keanu!!"
-Isaac
I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice. For Entertainment Purposes Only.
From all the news articles I've read, the PDA market was growing well into early 2001, then fell into a large tailspin. The numbers you are quoting are probably far more indicative of the start of 2001 then then end.
:)
The other thing to consider is that you are quoting numbers about unit shipments, while I'm sure that the '44%' number being quoted for Palm is in terms of revenue. The average selling price of a Palm has come way down over the last year due to price competition and Palm's introduction of new very low-end units. I'm seeing m100's selling for C$150 - that would make them under US$100...that's dramatically lower than their entry level PDA's at the start of 2001 (more than 44% so).
Finally, good old anecdote : I see lots of people with Palms & Visors, but they are of all different models....the people I know with Palms don't talk about upgrading them or getting new ones. I have not actually seen an iPaq or Jornada in the 'wild'....not sitting in the airport, not at my doctor's or dentist's office, nada. If they are taking over the world they must be doing it somewhere else.
This is obviously mostly marketing hype (their PalmOS vs PPC list is as bad as M$'s PPC vs PalmOS list). Give us some real information... What kind of memory protection will the new OS have? (currently PalmOS has none!). How's the file system going to work? Multitasking wasn't menioned, but has been brought up in the past; how is it being implemented? (PPC's multitasking sucks)
The only thing that really stands out to me is "supports up to 320x320 resolution". Big deal... Sony has that now. Why the Hell don't they support up to 480x320? You'd get the high resolution that the Sony units along with the virtual graffiti area that PPCs and Handeras have. Some people prefer one over the other, but pretty much *everyone* would appreciate having both.
As far as all the "PalmOS is dead, PPC rules" posts, you're either uninformed, stupid, or running a FUD campaign. PalmOS *still* controls 80% of the market, despite M$ pouring huge amounts of money into PPC. If PPC was its own company, they would've gone under a long time ago. Palm doesn't have a sugar daddy, and they're not in great shape financially, but they're certainly alive and kicking. It's possible that they'll go under in a few years (they are buring through their cash pretty quick) but who knows?
As far as comments about Palm being nothing more than an organizer and PPC being a computer, (1) that's been discussed to death and (2) who the crap modded them up? A quick refresher... having a taskswitching vs multitasking OS does not differentiate between a PDA and a computer. Multimedia isn't required either. All PalmOS devices can run spreadsheets, databases, programming languages, word processors, games, email, web browsing, etc... They are real computers.
Some people want better audio and video playback, so Palm is adding it. Does this go against the Zen of Palm? Perhaps... depends on how it's done. We'll know soon.
I travel alot, and I find planes to be extremely boring. Heh I never intended to use this to replace my 27" TV at home.
I downloaded an episode of Quantum Leap to my PocketPC on my last trip. The resolution was like 160 by 120, the screen ghosted, the frame rate was 7fps, and the idiot next to me who, saw me watching this show, didn't realize that his questions were interrupting my experience.
Despite these limitations, it worked surprisingly well. A spacebattle wouldn't work too well here, but for watching a character based show, the story came across just fine. The best thing is, the entire trip my laptop stayed in the overhead bin.
Now if I could bring a 25 inch TV on a plane, I'd agree that'd be a better solution. In the mean time, this solution worked pretty well. My only complaint was that I only had enough RAM for one episode.
When I can get a 400mhz PDA with a 1gig Microdrive, I'll have one hell of an entertainment option for airplane travel.
"Derp de derp."
Palm did well - so well that the majority of their customers don't want or need to upgrade. They made a PDA John Doe could use (John doe could barely send email when he got his palm). So what have they had to do? They've had to expand their market to include other groups to keep their sales up, now they've got the wireless PDAs, and they've got the cheap PDAs, and now they've saturated that market with satisfied, non-returning customers. The only market they don't have a PDA for is the power-user market, and they really haven't made much headway into the enterprise market (not nearly as much as they were expecting).
So they've painted themselves into a corner. Handspring at least did a little better - by making their PDAs cheaper and non-upgradeable they have customers that are starting to wonder if they should get the new model - but not many, because they have the same market Palm has, and these people don't care to fix what's not broken.
So they see their sales dropping, and they are going to be cutting jobs and weathering the storm (by seperating their businesses, etc), and at the same time try and find a way to 1) get people to upgrade 2) break into other markets.
They've chosen primarily 1. They indicate that palm 5 will have backward compatability, but don't indicate any sort of forward compatability - soon you'll see apps that only run on >= P5 OS. They are hoping that this will happen quickly enough to save them before they run out of money. The only 'new' market they are trying to get into is the enterprise market again They've been trying to get into if for years, and haven't made any headway because their devices are not seen as necessary. Of the highly touted new features, the only one the palm doesn't have in its earlier versions in one form or another is the encryption - which John Doe doesn't need, care for, or want to deal with. This is a feature that the 'enterprise' customers have always wanted - on paper. They won't likely use it to its fullest, but it's a comfort buzzword they think they need.
Prognosis: Not good. Palm won't die out, but they won't have the time or resources to make any significant change to its OS and retarget it for larger, untapped markets. Its current offering is slightly less dazzling when seen side by side at the shopping mall, and not nearly as well marketted as the PocketPC.
-Adam