Luciano A. Stertz wrote:
Logan Shaw wrote:
I expected them
to wait for PalmSource to become a bargain and then buy it back, but
instead they let ACCESS have it. One would think if they saw Palm OS
as their future, they would want to have more control of its destiny.
Now they have introduced a Windows Mobile device, but it's not a plain
vanilla Windows Mobile device. They are talking about bringing the
Palm "experience" and usability over to Windows Mobile devices.
Maybe they are just refering to Palm's hardware, Treo form-factor, etc.
The press release at
http://www.palm.com/us/company/pr/news_feed_story.epl?reqid=761209
quotes Ed Colligan as saying this:
We're confident customers will see a differentiated smartphone
that delivers our world-class usability on Microsoft's flexible
and robust Windows Mobile operating system.
And it also says this:
During the press conference, the companies demonstrated the
Palm experience now brought to life on Windows Mobile. The
audience saw a sampling of Palm's award-winning hardware
design integrated thoughtfully with a rich Palm software
suite, including the ability to:
* Contact someone quickly from the Today Screen and choose
between home, office or mobile numbers, or select email
or SMS. With only two letters entered, a customer can find
a record from among thousands of contacts;
* Reach people most often called via photo speed dials visible
as a band of images on the Today Screen;
* Decline a call with a friendly SMS, signaling "In a meeting"
or "Talking with the boss" instead of simply ignoring the
call; and
* Rewind, delete or fast-forward through work or cell phone
voicemail with familiar and consistent on-screen icons.
To me, both these quotes make it seem like they are trying to build
something on top of Window Mobile, not just build yet another Windows
Mobile device.
Obviously, with every product, Palm doesn't seem to view themselves
as introducing just some new hardware to run Palm OS (or Windows Mobile).
They want to deliver something that is a good product as a whole, which
includes hardware, the OS, and software customizations. So in that
sense, this new product is not really too different from past Palm
products. But I guess my point is that they are trying to develop a
Windows-plus-Palm identity. This doesn't necessarily have to happen
to the exclusion of a Palm-OS-plus-Palm identity. If they have something
new, this gives them the flexibility to ditch the old stuff, but that
doesn't mean they necessarily will.
- Logan
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