Does Palm Need Android?

Used a Treo 600 for years. Thought I would try out an Samsung Intercept Android. I used it for 2 weeks on Virgin Mobile. Try as I may I thought the droid Phone was very clunky and could not understand how it would ever be possible to get used to it. For a windows world my Palm seemed to have more in common with window then the droid did. Yeah the android had lots of bells and whistles but for the day to day stuff, Palm seemed so much easier to use. I really wanted it to work out. I know the 600 is way dated.

Maybe some of you Palm users can tell me too. What happened to Datebook command: Journal (Menu J) and Floating events (menu i) on later Palms? I bought a 650 but returned it because it seemed like instead of adding features they started removing them.

funny that nobody mentions ALP as a viable alternative. in theory, it should be. thoughts?

If it's not glaringly obvious by now, Palm is a completely rudderless company that has ruined every opportunity they have had to right the ship.

They could have gone kept Palmsource and kept working on PalmOS. They could have gone with Cobalt. They could have gone with ALP. They could go with android. But they will continue their stubborn pursuits to make a new OS, and when and if it comes out it will be about 4 years behind the competition.

Palm=Commodore.

Palm Pilot 5000->Palm Pilot Professional->Handspring Visor->Handspring Visor Prism->Handspring Visor Neo->Handspring Treo 180->Handspring Treo 270->Palm Treo 600->Tapwave Zodiac 2->Palm Treo 650->Palm Treo 680->...

Samsung i780!

Goodbye Palm

OPTIMISTS! ALL of you!


Paying my annual PDA update tax to Palm since 1997.

> ...Android doesn't already have a pre-existing market of enterprise
> customers to sell to, and it's yet to be proven in the consumer space...

Not to nit a pick but...you know...Nova hasn't really been proven anywhere, either.

hmmmmmmmmmmmmnnnnnnnnnnn............

what a difference 2 years makes.....................

>Internet Tablets, gaming devices, dare I say it..PDA's, and maybe even Universal Remotes.

yes, low margin commodity markets and dead markets are the keys to profitability.

yes, low margin commodity markets and dead markets are the keys to profitability.

Phones aren't exactly high margin anymore.

(Well, unless you're Apple, but Apple could sell the iLoo for 10x the price of a regular toilet.)

All I would need to have in order to jump ship right now would be an Android phone equipped like the Treo Pro (keyboard, touchscreen, camera, etc) and including a program to easily import my calendar and contacts from my Centro - and I'm there. I've been a Palm fanboy for years, having started with a Palm III, but I just don't see Palm being around in another two years once Android infests the market. They don't make their own phones, one of their OS's is widely available Windows, and their other OS is outdated and by the time they get Nova to market they will be two years too late and will have to try to compete with Android. They are so screwed.

**Without their one basket full of eggs**

Make that 'one basket full of rotten eggs'. Barring the Pro, everything Palm has looks like an "egg" left out of the fridge too long and beginning to stink. Four years of moving like a glacier can do that.

Now that being said, the article says that it's "risky" for Palm to develop it's own OS. Well folks, risky is better than guaranteed death. That's what Palm will get if they try to go head to head with other hardware manufacturers using a the same OS. Palm has proven for years that it has neither the will nor the ability to be on the cutting edge of hardware tech. Their "just enough to make it" hardware philosophy (m5xx, T|W, T|C audio, Treo650 32mb, T|T5, missing WiFi, inching Treo upgrades etc.) will be a joke in the long run even if the Android platform becomes profitable.

Now, I hold about a 15% chance that Nova actually ships on any device. But even if I happened to be accurate, I would still roll the dice with it. Something radically productive that others cannot easily duplicate is Palm's only hope. They did it with the Pilot and they did it with the Treo (they?), but they have not excelled at retaining leads. From a historical standpoint, they either innovate a "new" and needed solution, or they die. Taking the risk of Nova is no risk in my book.

Pat Horne

> ...Something radically productive that others cannot easily duplicate
> is Palm's only hope...

Too late - Microsoft already demonstrated it!

- http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/01/microsoft-research-codex-project-tries-two-screens-on-for-size/

"Yeah, Palm could jump on board the Android bandwagon, but unless they buy Access, they will be stuck making their own compatibility layer, again, this time out of Java. So that's another start from scratch situation"

Android is a Linux-based system; Palm could have easily put their own software on it, along-side the Java based applications.

I think they missed the boat, though. As a first mover, they could have made a name for themselves again. As is, HTC, Motorola, and Samsung would kill them with better and cheaper hardware.

It certainly would have put them in a better position than they are in today.

If we're going for the road not taken, though, the real mistake was in ever splitting off the OS from the hardware company. It did absolutely nothing for them, and crippled OS development.

"All opinions posted are my own, and not those of my employers, who are appalled."

Yeah, Access Mobile Linux was demo'ing what - 2 years ago? They didn't have the radios fully functioning and other stuff was left to do, but it was pretty far along. They had it running some legacy PalmOS apps just fine. WTF has been happening since?

Between Palm's seeming ineptitude at releasing something the past few years worth buying that runs PalmOS apps and Sprint's inability to bill in accordance with the agreement their representatives make, I'm nearly ready to go back to a Daytimer and land line.


Paying my annual PDA update tax to Palm since 1997.

Short drive between the 2 companies. I'd rather have Google stock options, myself.


Paying my annual PDA update tax to Palm since 1997.

I thought there were many confirmed Android devices with one ready for release any day now.

I think it's only been HTC and Motorola that have even announced plans, with HTC being the one to confirm an actual phone.

It probably wouldn't be that hard for any Linux device to run Android, theoretically. My only point was that Palm might want to wait to see how Android does "in the wild" to see if it's going to catch on.

Just something to keep in mind: that single HTC handset running Android is still more than the combined total of all the Cobalt, ALP and Nova-powered handsets on the market.

Pilot 1000->Pilot 5000->PalmPilot Pro->IIIe->Vx->m505->T|T->T|T2->T|C->T|T3->T|T5->Zodiac 2->TX->Verizon Treo 700P->Verizon Treo 755p

"It's (Android) version one... and it looks like version one." - Steve Ballmer, Microsoft