PalmSource Readies For Converged Future With New OS

PalmSource, an OS vendor that traditionally has focused the personal digital assistant (PDA) market, announced a new strategy to address devices that handle both voice and data communications. The move would enable solution providers that specialize in the Palm OS to sell PalmSource services through a number of new devices.

"We've been a player in this space for a long time. But moving forward, diversity is a key strategy of ours," Nagel told a crowd of about 1,000 developers attending the conference in San Jose, Calif. "Ten years from now, every phone will be a smartphone.

Since PalmSource's spin-off from palmOne--the handheld hardware division--last October, market research has shown the importance of phone capabilities to PDAs. Sales of handheld computers without phone functions slipped 18 percent in 2003, according to research firm IDC.

Cell phone giant Nokia claims the lead in the smartphone market. The Finnish company, which increased its majority stake in the Symbian phone OS by buying out shares formerly held by Psion, holds about 65 percent of the market. PalmSource and Microsoft follow, with 14 percent and 12 percent market share, respectively.

"With our operating system, smartphones are more usable, more compatible and more flexible than they are with our competitors," Nagel said in his morning keynote. "We will continue to expand these efforts and make good on the strategy of taking technology, putting it in small packages and making it useful."

To that end, Sunnyvale, Calif.-based PalmSource also said Tuesday that it will adopt a "dual-version strategy" for the OS by developing a new platform for the smartphone market and keeping the older Palm OS--previously known as Palm OS 5 and renamed Tuesday as Palm Garnet--available for pure PDAs and other devices.

PalmSource's newest OS, technically version 6 but formally dubbed Cobalt, includes major upgrades for multimedia, multitasking and security and now is shipping to device manufacturers. In demonstrations throughout the morning, PalmSource officials touted the usability of the new OS, including "slip" features, which essentially are shortcuts on the device menu bar.

After the keynote, a bevy of ISVs unveiled new products in conjunction with the Cobalt launch, including the following:

-Hands High Software, East Palo Alto, Calif., rolled out WiFile, a remote-access product that connects Palm devices to Windows-based devices via a standard LAN, a wireless LAN or the Internet.

-Bachmann Software, Sparta, N.J., unveiled an update of its FilePoint software that allows Palm device users to access files on shared network drives.

-Mark/Space, Los Gatos, Calif., launched Missing Sync software, which enables Palm devices to synchronize with Mac OS X computers.

-Corsoft, San Mateo, Calif., introduced an update to Plug2Net for Palm OS, which hooks Palm OS devices to the Internet using USB or Bluetooth connections.