Rumor: Nintendo Licensing PalmSource Software?

If they do this, instead of releasing cobalt, they are doomed! No one in the palm community would welcome this news, and all their customers are there, and if they think they can steal HP or Dell users, they are utterly stupid!

I've seen nothing confirming this anywhere - no MSFT or PLMO PR-fluffs, for example.

18:00 CET is 12:00 EST.

temp_user, there *are* no more PalmOS hardware manufacturers. At least, none to speak of. Even Garmin has switched to Windows, and Tapwave has announced their corporate suicide with no new hardware until 2006. If PalmOne switched, it would be the end of Palm OS. As for Windows 'steeling' customers, Windows Mobile has been half the market for a while now. Palm OS used to hold 80% of the market. Now it's closer to 40%. If that's not Palm OS losing customers to Windows, I don't know what is. And those people have no reason to come back.

Handheld sales have remained the same or declined slightly for the last three years. They haven't increased enough to give PocketPCs their market share without impinging on Palm. And besides which, it doesn't change the fact that PocketPCs still hold a vast chunk of the market, even if PalmOne's sales hadn't declined at all.

If PalmOne, the last remaining licensee of a platform that is already seen to be in trouble, were to jump ship, there would be no new manufacturers. PalmSource doesn't have the resources or the experience to become a hardware manufacturer with any real success, and no one else would want to pick up a snake-bit platform. Palm OS isn't some kind of dynasty that will always be there. It can fall victim to market forces as easily as anyone, and the two Palm companies haven't been doing anything to shore it up. Quite the opposite.

They don't have the engineers--when the company split, the hardware guys went to PalmOne.

They have 11 licensees, and only one of them is more than an astrisk.

The brand would be destroyed if P1's switched. There's almost no way to create an analogy for what would happen if P1 dumped PalmOS, because there are almost no markets that are supplied by a single company. Confidence in PalmSource and the future of the PalmOS is already low because of the Cobalt fiasco, the confusion over Palm Linux, and P1's wavering on their use PSRC OSes. If P1 switched, it would be a staggering blow to PSRC, a vote of no confidence by the only base they have left. It would amount to PalmOne saying to the world that the Palm OS was no longer useful.

Pat,

I'm puzzled by the psychological motivation to put words in the mouth of others, to ascribe fictional nefarious motives to a debater, or to construct strawmen. There's been a major news story about PalmOne and Windows Mobile--since PIC didn't post an article, a discussion thread got started here. I participated in the discussion, on the theoretical premise of what would happen if PalmOne moved to Windows. Frankly, I don't see what's so hard to follow about that chain of logic.

As for being an 'owner', I don't have any Microsoft stock, if that's what you mean.

"The brand would be destroyed if P1's switched. There's almost no way to create an analogy for what would happen if P1 dumped PalmOS, because there are almost no markets that are supplied by a single company. Confidence in PalmSource and the future of the PalmOS is already low because of the Cobalt fiasco, the confusion over Palm Linux, and P1's wavering on their use PSRC OSes. If P1 switched, it would be a staggering blow to PSRC, a vote of no confidence by the only base they have left. It would amount to PalmOne saying to the world that the Palm OS was no longer useful."

I have to agree with AdamaDBrown on the above and so bringing this back to the original article subject of Nintendo not licensing the OS (or are they?), Sony dropping Palm OS altogether, Tapwave not even getting off the launchpad and PalmOne beating everyone on PalmOS enabled hardware (like who else is there?) then...

Why is Palm split into two companies?

Why not consolidate, forget about licensing the operating system to anyone and just provide the best possible experience in handheld computing and settle for a smaller market share?

Forget competing with Windows Mobile because Microsoft have bottomless pockets and will buy their way into the market the same way they have bought market share with Xbox. Likewise Symbian because of its quorum of handset manufacturers.

It was a difficult road but Apple appear to have done this successfully.

Temp,
The attacks are a common approach on any stock board. So much so, that bashers make the medium almost worthless. They spill into any place where investors may look to "get a feel" for a company.

AdamA,
My point is simply as stated. Where is a link to anything, even a decent rumor, that says P1 is S-W-I-T-C-H-I-N-G. Not diversifying, but S-W-I-T-C-H-I-N-G. You even stated it again. This is a discussion on PSRC rumored to be getting a new lisencee. I expect P1 to diversify, that's wisdom. Even if they use WinMob, then they would be fools to abandon Palm OS. I'm puzzled as to why you're so sure about S-W-I-T-C-H-I-N-G. I'll ask one last time ... can you link us to any news on such a thing?

Seldom,
Great quote except you're wrong in my case. I have no position + or - on PLMO or PSRC or MSFT. Palms are awesome gadgets, but my posts show plenty of evidence that I'm not a stock fanboy. I've lost enough $$$ on tech dreams over the past few year to even go there. When I referred to "owner" I was referring to a device, not stock.

Pat Horne; www.churchoflivingfaith.com

Noted :-)

Pat Horne; www.churchoflivingfaith.com

svrontis,

Thanks for the excellent post. It's easy to just assume that the "big boys" in hardware or software can just dump their relatively limitless cash into a venture, take it over and crush the little guys. Sure it is the basic gameplan, but it not a given success by any means.

Although Palm seemed so vulnerable in the face of Sony, Dell, HPs deep pockets and even H/S's initial innovations, they have shown an uncanny ability to stay afloat. One PalmOne exec spoke to this several months back. How and why they produced m100, i705, T|W and other underwhelming models made a lot of us shake our heads. Nevertheless, they HAVE survived. Even the "TE2" and it's near immediate and significant "special offers" will probably be profitable.

The big boys still have to answer to the shareholders. When the pressure is on, management looks for places to cut. While "Palm" has not dominated the world, it has survived while others have given up. Most notably Sony, but several on the PPC side. With HPs shakeup at the top and highly lackluster "Darth Vader Pez Dispenser" designs, I would not be so sure that they are willing to languish in a sideways market either. That pathetic rz1715 is bleeding badly and the others don't seem to hot either. Dell is even "discounting" and making "offers" on their awesome X50 series. But those HP communicators look pretty attractive. We'll see if this thing really becomes a two-horse race for PDAs afterall?

Anyway. Excellent thouhgts.

Pat Horne; www.churchoflivingfaith.com

Don't forget that M$ have their fingers in a lot of pies and their resources are not infinite.

[Yada Yada SNIP]

Just don't assume that M$ will continue to waste its time and efforts on a division that is going nowhere.

Microsoft's smartphone and PPC investment is already paying off for the company and they're now seizing a significant portion of the market. Microsoft is NOT going anywhere and to suggust they won't win this battle is naive. And by the way, Microsoft's resources don't have to be infinite: PPC spending is chump change for Gates. They've spent more on a couple lawsuits than they have on WinCE/PPC in the past 8 years.





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Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.

I want all you schmoes to print this out and tape it to the top of your computer screen:

"Death can come swiftly to a market leader. By the time you have lost the positive-feedback cycle it's often too late to change what you've been doing, and all of the elements of a negative spiral come into play." - Bill Gates, "The Road Ahead", Chapter 3

Pat,

http://www.msmobiles.com/news.php/3583.html

It doesn't really make a difference whether PalmOne were to split their high-end models--or even just the Treos--between Palm and Windows, or switch to Windows for everything. The crippling blow would be primarily a PR one. It would be saying "Even we, the other Palm company, don't think PalmSource has the ability to provide for business use, or anything more complex than a calculator watch." It would say to the vertical markets "Palm OS doesn't work for you. Buy PocketPCs." It would say to the consumer market "The Palm brand really doesn't mean anything. Oh, and can we confuse you over what OS we're running, so that you flee to a different company where you at least know what you're getting?"

Besides that, it's hideously difficult to push two different OSes at once. Just ask PalmSource. Or Samsung, for that matter. It creates market confusion, splits development effort, doubles costs, and takes up time and energy in trying to simplify and explain everything.

No, there was no announcement at all--no licensing, not even something minor like new sync tools that they might have flacked into a 'major announcement.' The whole thing just dropped. It's rather odd.

More screwy disinfo from our old MS-spurned PPC cultist, ska.

Will you be here when it all turns out to be less than your gloating justifies?

Sony Ericsson launches Walkmans

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4265777.stm

* Philips may announce a ready-to-use reference design for Linux operating software handsets that will work on current second generation networks. The design enables electronics makers to quickly enter the market with open source handsets.

* Infineon and Samsung unveil a reference design for a Linux handset that works on high-speed third generation (3G) mobile phone networks.

More at:

http://tinyurl.com/48b9t

If it'll run Linux, it should run Palmix, no?

Motorola announces, E1060 iTunes on board

http://tinyurl.com/5gaff