Friday, April 28, 2006
Does PalmOS Risk Losing Developers?
Posted by Ed Hansberry in "THE COMPETITION" @ 12:00 PM
http://news.com.com/With+OS+development+stalled%2C+Palm+risks+defections/2100-1045_3-6065542.html?tag=nefd.lede
"It's been two years since the release of the last major upgrade to the Palm operating system for mobile devices, not counting the upgrade [Cobalt/PalmOS6] that never appeared in public. The Palm OS still enjoys a loyal following, but it'll have to get up to speed sooner rather than later--or risk an exodus to competing platforms such as Windows Mobile and Symbian. With a brand-new version of the pioneer mobile OS not expected to appear for at least another year, some larger developers of mobile applications are looking elsewhere when launching their new multimedia applications. Windows Mobile and Symbian are emerging as the operating systems of choice as large companies bring multimedia applications down to phones and handhelds."
PalmOS has seemingly always had the problem with OEMs looking at the core product and deciding it wasn't enough, so it got hacked up with custom hardware and APIs. I think the TRG Pro with its bolted on CF slot (later renamed the Handera 330) was the first. Then Handspring added a proprietary Springboard slot that essentially accepted mini-computers that could give you multimedia and other key features that used the host PDA as an input screen, then Sony went all out with custom drivers for their non-standard displays. It was enough to drive the average software developers batty trying to customize their app for dozens of devices.
At some point though, the OS itself must progress enough to allow some apps to work without ginormous efforts on the part of the software developer. Skype has yet to be released for PalmOS because Garnet simply can't handle it. I am sure PalmSource/Access is trying to get the new high-speed EVDO networks working on their OS, but they are probably more focused on getting it to work on the next generation OS, due in 12-18 months, something that shouldn't be a problem for a device with a Linux kernel. In the mean time, developers are working on Windows Mobile and Symbian solutions. The operating system does all of the heavy lifting leaving the developer to focus on the user interface and custom features of their application, not making custom radio stacks or trying to write directly to the hardware in order to make the performance of their application acceptable.
"It's been two years since the release of the last major upgrade to the Palm operating system for mobile devices, not counting the upgrade [Cobalt/PalmOS6] that never appeared in public. The Palm OS still enjoys a loyal following, but it'll have to get up to speed sooner rather than later--or risk an exodus to competing platforms such as Windows Mobile and Symbian. With a brand-new version of the pioneer mobile OS not expected to appear for at least another year, some larger developers of mobile applications are looking elsewhere when launching their new multimedia applications. Windows Mobile and Symbian are emerging as the operating systems of choice as large companies bring multimedia applications down to phones and handhelds."
PalmOS has seemingly always had the problem with OEMs looking at the core product and deciding it wasn't enough, so it got hacked up with custom hardware and APIs. I think the TRG Pro with its bolted on CF slot (later renamed the Handera 330) was the first. Then Handspring added a proprietary Springboard slot that essentially accepted mini-computers that could give you multimedia and other key features that used the host PDA as an input screen, then Sony went all out with custom drivers for their non-standard displays. It was enough to drive the average software developers batty trying to customize their app for dozens of devices.
At some point though, the OS itself must progress enough to allow some apps to work without ginormous efforts on the part of the software developer. Skype has yet to be released for PalmOS because Garnet simply can't handle it. I am sure PalmSource/Access is trying to get the new high-speed EVDO networks working on their OS, but they are probably more focused on getting it to work on the next generation OS, due in 12-18 months, something that shouldn't be a problem for a device with a Linux kernel. In the mean time, developers are working on Windows Mobile and Symbian solutions. The operating system does all of the heavy lifting leaving the developer to focus on the user interface and custom features of their application, not making custom radio stacks or trying to write directly to the hardware in order to make the performance of their application acceptable.
