Palm hosting CES event, could be OS preview
Palm is inviting the media to a CES event.
(Credit: Palm)Palm will look to put a rough year in the rearview mirror at CES with what could be a preview of its new operating system.
The company started sending out invitations Wednesday to an event at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas on the Thursday of CES week, promising a look at "all that Palm New-ness you've been waiting for." The most likely guest of honor at that event is Palm's next-generation "Nova" operating system, which has been delayed several times but is crucial to the company's chances of regaining a foothold in the mobile computing market.
Nova is based on Linux, and is expected to bring the Palm-branded operating system into the modern era of computing. You can trace the beginning of Palm's decline as a mobile computing innovator to the 2003 decision to separate into two companies, one that developed the operating system (Palmsource) and one that developed the hardware (Palm).
Palm wound up having to nurture the 2004-era Palm OS version into the present day after Palmsource and later Access never produced anything deemed useful; it still runs the Palm Centro. The company wisely hooked up with Microsoft to release Windows Mobile-based Treos, but has longed to once again design a complete product, hardware and software.
Nova is not expected to appear on devices until later in 2009, and few details have emerged as to what Palm has up its sleeve. The first week of January should give a sense of whether Palm has managed to make a real breakthrough in mobile computing, or merely caught up to the rest of the world.
Tom Krazit writes about the ever-expanding world of Internet search, including Google, Yahoo, online advertising, and portals, as well as the evolution of mobile computing. He has written about traditional PC companies, chip manufacturers, and mobile computers, spending the last three years covering Apple. E-mail Tom. 
How does Palm compete with Android when Android is cheaper and is open source?
I have a hard time believing that Palm would spend money to develop a new OS, really.
They?ve been doing exactly that for a good 6 years...
CVB
Palm is capable of making some nice devices and, since Android is open source, they can tailor the software to be as "Palm-like" as they want.
I wish the best for the folks at Palm, and hope they can make a comeback. After watching people ridicule Palm for the Foleo, then a few months later heap praise on the EeePC (which was essentially the same concept), I'd like to see Palm have some success.
Nova IS based on Linux (see article). However, they could have saved time by licensing a newer OS, than what they licensed for PalmOS. Android looks rough.
Feleo was email only. You can catch an Acer 15" laptop for $400 on discount, less than the Foleo, or many netbooks.
Maybe they will surprise us all, but realistically, if I owned Palm stock I would be selling as soon as possible.
- by Urban Terrorist December 14, 2008 10:42 AM PST
- Let me get this straight - using Microsoft's mobile software was a good idea? What planet are you from? The only Palm phones that have ever sold well are those that had Palm's own software installed.
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