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. "

Comments

but the patent...

[I Want GNU!]

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.

Re:but the patent...

[aron_wallaker]

Palm sales aren't down because people are buying so many HP's & Compaq's....a 44% decline in Palm's unit sales would be more units than HP and Compaq sell in a year. Palm sales are down because people with Palm 3's (or even older) are still using them to do the same simple tasks they've done since day 1 and have no reason to upgrade. They saturated the market but haven't managed to create upgrade demand.

Handspring

[Evanrude]

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.

Where's the beef?

[Anonymous Coward]

No screenshots, no specifics, just a lot of buzzwords arranged in Mad Libs style order.

OS 5?

[TheRhino]

I'll bet it's only half as good as OS X.

Re:Thin on detail

[HMC CS Major]

On the issue of multimedia:

Palm OS 5 incorporates a set of high-density APIs that double the screen resolution of a Palm Powered device -- from 160 x 160 pixels to multiples of 160x160 pixels. (These high-density APIs are compatible with software written for a 160 x 160 screen.) In addition to these video enhancements, audio capabilities have been improved with a new set of APIs for playing and recording 16-bit audio files.

Doubling the resolution, or tripling it, can provide much greater flexibility for apps that really do demand high resolutions to run nicely. This is a substantial step forward towards having real multimedia (decent quality movies/etc) on a handheld device.

On the issue of security:

Palm OS 5 offers system-wide strong encryption (128-bit) as a standard feature. Through a partnership with RSA Security, the leading encryption provider in the security industry, Palm OS 5 includes RC4, SHA-1, and signature verification using RSA-verify. This partnership with RSA Security ensures that best-of-class security services are available within Palm OS. An integral component of these security features is a plug-in cryptographic architecture, which allows the addition of other algorithms, such as Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), to meet specific market needs. Palm OS 5 also offers 128-bit Secure Sockets Layer encryption services (SSL 3.0/TLS 1.0) for secure end-to-end connections.

Seems reasonable to me. Tie this security into strong biometric authentication (voice, handwriting, fingerprints) and you have a much more secure handheld than ever before.

this may not be enough

[markj02]

It's not clear to me what Palm wants to be. The current Palm devices make nifty little address books and calendaring tools with long battery life. But that's a small margin product, which is probably why Handspring is getting out of the business. For corporate applications or multimedia applications, you need fast processors, large screens, and 32bit addressing (so that people don't have to spend an eternity tuning their code).

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.

Re:Palm vs Ipaq

[dhamsaic]

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.

Lotus ... WordPerfect ... Novell ... Palm?

[sphealey]

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

Great OS, but Palm's platforms are lagging...

[Tsar]

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 Cli&eacute 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?

Re:Great OS, but Palm's platforms are lagging...

[EisPick]

The OS is flashable, so I expect I'll upgrade to 5.0 when the time comes

OS 5.x will only run on ARM processors. The Dragonball handhelds will be stuck at OS 4.x forever.

Re:What Difference Does It Make In The Long Run?

[melevitt]

You're confusing Palm the device maker with the Palm OS subsidiary.

Palm OS is releasing a new version that will be licensed to many different hardware manufacturers. The point is that these hardware manufacturers can take a multimedia-ready Palm OS 5 and build something more than a "39 cent paper note pad".

A little perspective on Palm's market share...

[isaac]

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

Not much useful information

[Deslock]

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.