Symbol Bids Adieu To Palm, Start-up Seeks To Fill Void

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In the latest blow to the Palm operating system, Symbol Technologies is taking its last orders for devices based on the once popular platform. The enterprise mobile computing vendor, which Motorola is acquiring for $3.9 billion, is pulling the plug on its last two Palm-based ruggedized handheld lines, the Symbol SPT1550 and SPT1800.

Symbol quietly began notifying its reseller partners a couple of months ago of its plans. The last ordered units will ship in January.

The move comes as many companies that had once standardized on the Palm OS for their enterprise handheld devices, such as Sears Roebuck and Co.--which deployed more than 15,000 Palm-based Symbol handhelds at the turn of the century -- move to Microsoft Windows-based devices.

As Windows-based devices gained momentum over the past several years, the future of the Palm OS became increasingly uncertain to many. The maker of the Palm OS, PalmSource, which was acquired by Japanese firm Access Co. last year, hasn't released a new version of the OS in nearly three years. Meanwhile, adding insult to injury, the largest licensee of the Palm operating system, Palm Inc., this year started shipping its first Windows Mobile-based devices, though it has not said it is abandoning the Palm platform.

Access will not release another version of the classic Palm OS after the current version, 5.4.9, otherwise known as "Garnet," but the company says its forthcoming Linux-based mobile platform, Access Linux Platform (ALP), will include a Palm OS compatability layer that will support many legacy Palm applications.

"There is no guarantee all apps will run, but with the tests we've done so far, most will run," says Didier Diaz, executive officer and vice president of strategic product marketing for Access.

The company plans to ship a prerelease version of ALP before the end of this year and a final version in the first half of 2007. The company will not say whether it has signed any hardware licensees yet for ALP. That includes Palm Inc., which originally developed the Palm OS and spun off PalmSource in 2003; some argue that may not have been best move for the platform.

Symbol says it made its decision to move away from the platform now based on Access' future roadmap, a shortage of key components in the supply chain for its existing Palm-based devices, and features in the Windows that appeal to enterprise IT buyers. Unfortunately, as is the case when any vendor end-of-lifes a product, some end users and partners will find themselves with the short end of the stick.

Symbol has sold about a half million to 1 million Palm-based rugged devices since it first adopted the Palm OS in the late '90s, mostly through the channel and into smaller businesses attracted by the less costly Palm OS-based devices. Symbol's devices ranged from about $400 to $700, which is cheap in comparison to many rugged handhelds on the market now.

But for partners, those devices meant much more in terms of overall systems integration and services revenues.

Symbol is also the only major manufacturer that provides ruggedized handhelds on the Palm OS, which leaves those users and partners with little choice but to switch to Windows now.

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