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Palm Teams With Microsoft for Smart Phone
UltimaGuy writes "Yahoo! News is reporting that Palm Inc. is teaming up with Microsoft Corp. to launch a Windows-based version of the Treo smart phone, marking the first time the handheld computer pioneer will sell a device based on its former rival's software. 'In terms of the level of importance, this would be - in this space - the same thing as Apple announcing they were going to be using Intel processors.'"
I hope they don't stop develping their Palm OS and start focusing to much on Win Mobile. Palm OS is a great platform, and its dead would be really bad.
I just don't trust anything that bleeds for five days and doesn't die.
the same thing as Apple announcing they were going to be using Intel processors.
no.. more like if apple announced they were releasing a windows-based computer; or a wma-only ipod...
my question... will phone calls to windowsupdate be free? or will package minutes apply. i might need to up my plan.
Bye, bye Palm then and hello to being a Microsoft OEM on phones where there is absolutely no money and you're over a barrel all the time. A lot of Microsoft's competitors take it like a bitch all the time, that's the problem. No doubt Nokia will do the same and integrate support in for Exchange etc. and once that support is in Microsoft will use it to strong-arm Windows Mobile into the fray. Idiots.
I liked the Palm OS because I learned Graffiti when the original Palm came out. It really was a nice, no-nonsense OS, it did everything that I wanted it to do and left out features that I didn't need. I think that sadly many users don't care about the actual functionality, but want to have stupid bells and whistles; just look at the cell phone market today... people own phones that record video, record audio notes, have specialized ringtones, have flashing lights, have changeable faceplates, and can play games, but most of the time they can't get service inside a building... shouldn't that problem be addressed first?
Those who know, do not speak. Those who speak, do not know. ~Lao Tzu
Engadget has pics of the new Windows Mobile Treo: http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000867059961/
Recent press reports make this sound as if Microsoft had devoured its one and only contender to the smartphone crown - and we'd all have to start clicking tiny Windows icons (and the reset button) on our cellphones, forever, really soon now. Curiously, almost all of these reports seem to forget how Symbian/Psion (and Linux itself) make a great platform for a smartphone OS while having many years of extremely loyal following by both countless customers and the mobile industry giants.
Essentially Palm is going down (stock wise and tech wise). With Linux Zaurses becoming popular and new products like the Nokia 770 coming out, there's not much room between Linux and WinCE for Palm to build a niche market.
You speak as if the next Palm OS wasn't already going to be linux.
Rumors about a WinCE Treo have been flying around for months. Rumors about a "windows Palm" have been even longer-lived. And, you know what? It isn't going to do jack against PalmOS. All it does it let a very well-designed device (the Treo) compete in just another area.
In the last few months I did my biannual palm upgrade. In two years, when I expect to do it again, the devices will have a Linux core, and they will have the Palm UI. WindowsCE (or whatever the heck the call it) will likely be an option, just as it would be an option to install Windows Vista or Linux on my 2007 iBook.
Either way, though, this marks the end of Palm. I've never seen a company thats managed to 'cooperate' and 'codevelop' with MS without getting really messed
Apple: One of the Mac's biggest and most popular software programs is Microsoft Office. MS even went so far as to bail out Apple in the mid 1990s.
Adobe: Ever notice how Adobe works so well with MS Office? Indesign reads DOCs, Acrobat installs a custom Office PDF writer, etc. All due to cooperation between the two giants.
I've used Linux as my sole OS for almost 5 years now. I recently switched from an old dying Palm to Pocket PC because, frankly, the Palm hardware sucked. Minus the Treo (I already had a cell phone) the new hardware sucks. The screens are either painful to look at or they produce this high pitched whine after a couple months. They're really not made as well anymore. Which is indeed sad, but I think all technologists should be pragmatic. And I made the pragmatic choice to give up on Palm, because they've ceased making good products. And somewhere along the line they did something that made Sony, Handera and other good hardware makers abandon ship. So Palm OS died because of Palm and PalmSource. They have only themselves to blame. They sat around and rested while Windows-based hardware got better and the OS got liveable (I still like Palm OS better, but if the hardware is garbage it doesn't matter).