(Credit:
Original photo: Newsday)
This post was updated on 4/29, 10:43 a.m., PT, with new information about the Palm Eos.
There's been a ton of Palm Pre chatter this week, leading many people to think that its launch is imminent. However, the latest rumors don't revolve around the Pre but rather future Palm Web OS devices.
According to TechCrunch's Michael Arrington, he talked to one of his "better sources," who revealed that Palm is "very far along" on a second Pre-like device that will ship as early as the fall.
TechCrunch didn't have many specifics on the device, other than it would be smaller in size, leading some to think that it might forgo a physical keyboard. Also, it's not meant to be a next-generation Web OS smartphone. Instead, it will simply offer customers another option.
Also in the world of rumors, Boy Genius Report has a very blurry photo of what it is calling Palm's next Web OS smartphone--a device similar to the Palm Centro in design but obviously, running the new OS.
Engadget Mobile actually found a clearer picture of the smartphone, as well as a name and a list of specs. Dubbed the Palm Eos, the quad-band mobile will offer 4GB of storage, HSDPA support, Bluetooth 2.1, and a 2-megapixel camera, among other things. It also looks to be quick thin and light at 4.3 inches tall by 2.1 inches wide by 0.4 inch thick and weighs 3.5 ounces. Engadget seems to think that the Eos, also known by its codename Castle, is AT&T bound and will go for $349 before rebates. If the Eos is meant to be the successor to the Centro, which was initially offered at $99 with contract, we really hope that price is wrong or there are some serious carrier discounts.
While all these rumors seem thin on details, the idea of a mini Palm Pre or Pre Centro isn't completely off the mark. Palm said that the Pre was only the first in a family of devices. Plus, the whole idea behind the Palm Web OS was to create a platform that offered enough flexibility to meet the different needs and lifestyles of its customers. With that in place, it only makes sense that Palm brings new form factors to market. Also as TechCrunch and PhoneDog point out, this is definitely an area where Palm could get ahead of Apple.
In the year since Palm released the Centro as an attempt to revive its lagging business, I've barely heard a whisper about new applications or energy for the Treo and Centro lines. Yet late Monday night, the device maker released its own app store download for Centro and Treo users to more easily access the applications.
The arrival of Palm's free app store--for both Windows Mobile and Palm operating systems--was undoubtedly spurred on by the success of Apple's iPhone App Store, Google's Android Market, and the upcoming BlackBerry app store that's slated to debut in March.
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Palm Software)
Palm's nexus of downloads includes over 5,000 applications, about a fifth of them freebies. Yet with the exception of Facebook, few appear to be the fresh takes on multimedia and social networking that have defined modern applications. A press release trumpets Nursing Central, Encyclopedia Britannica, Pac-Man, Tetris, and Fish Tycoon as its hot apps.
While Palm may hope its storefront will coax developers to submit variations of their innovative iPhone, BlackBerry, and Android apps to the store, the offering so far adds little strength to Palm's lagging market position.
Still, getting an app store out before BlackBerry does provide some credibility. More importantly, it will undoubtedly please existing Palm users, the most important ingredient for Palm's continued existence in the vicious and volatile mobile marketplace.
A new operating system for Palm may not arrive until the middle of next year, instead of early next year.
(Credit: CNET)Palm's bid to join the modern era of mobile computing will have to wait a little longer.
The company reported yet another quarterly loss last week, and The Register noticed that Palm CEO Ed Colligan has tweaked the shipping expectations for the company's new Linux-based operating system, known as Palm OS II. Once thought to arrive in early 2009, the new operating system is now targeted for the first half of 2009, which generally means May-June 2009 in the tech industry.
Palm has managed to keep its brand afloat over the past year with the success of the Centro, an inexpensive version of the Treo. Palm sold more than 1 million smartphones during the past quarter, but it's not clear whether Palm actually makes any money on the sale of a Centro. The company reported a net loss of $41.9 million for the quarter.
If it wasn't for Palm's decision to embrace the Windows Mobile operating system--used on its latest Treo Pro handset--the company might have gone out of business long ago. The current version of Palm OS was first introduced in 2004 and hasn't really been updated since 2006. An awful lot has changed in this market since then, and Palm desperately needs new software to challenge the likes of Apple, Research In Motion, Symbian, and now Google.
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