Palm is Dead?

Archived from groups: comp.sys.palmtops.pilot (More info?)

In article <1123398240.739860.84560@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com>,
"JC" <jcandito@gmail.com> wrote:

> http://tinyurl.com/bwtfr

That's a PocketPC site. And what they "report" is contradictory and full
of errors.

At one point it says the Palm OS is dead and a paragraph later says the
next Palm OS will run on Linux and in phones.

If they're hung up on names, then they should realize that PocketPC is
dead. Microsoft now makes Windows Mobile.

Archived from groups: comp.sys.palmtops.pilot (More info?)

"JC" <jcandito@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1123401814.861184.14770@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com...
> Good point!!!!! But I have also read that Palm is not continuing to
> develop Cobalt. Any truth?

That one is most likely true, in its present form. The new OSes will run on
top of Linux. They will still look the same
and an emulation layer is planned (sort of like now - PalmOS 5 runs 68K code
on an ARM using emulation)

Tom Lake

Archived from groups: comp.sys.palmtops.pilot (More info?)

Still there are recent stats that indicate Palm OS has gone from a
leading 40% of PDA market share in 2004 to a disasterous 20% this year.
The financials do not look good. See this article 8-4-05 in
vnunet.com:

"Palm has had a disastrous year, losing nearly half its market share
and its position as the PDA top dog"

"Manufacturer PalmOne is estimated to have just 17.8 per cent of the
PDA hardware market, compared to 33.2 per cent this time last year"

http://tinyurl.com/7o3oo

jc

Archived from groups: comp.sys.palmtops.pilot (More info?)

Don't get too hung up on stats. Some of those stats include the phone
market, others don't. Right now it's real hard to get a real picture of
what is going on.

--
---------------------------------------------------------------------
DataGet & PocketLog www.dataget.com
Data Collectors www.baxcode.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------



"JC" <jcandito@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1123443619.374685.82370@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> Still there are recent stats that indicate Palm OS has gone from a
> leading 40% of PDA market share in 2004 to a disasterous 20% this year.
> The financials do not look good. See this article 8-4-05 in
> vnunet.com:
>
> "Palm has had a disastrous year, losing nearly half its market share
> and its position as the PDA top dog"
>
> "Manufacturer PalmOne is estimated to have just 17.8 per cent of the
> PDA hardware market, compared to 33.2 per cent this time last year"
>
> http://tinyurl.com/7o3oo
>
> jc
>

Archived from groups: comp.sys.palmtops.pilot (More info?)

Guy Bannis <guy@ether.net> wrote:

>My contacts at HP hint that they're not making much money on the iPaq.

Your "contacts" may be right. My 'secret operatives' related the following:

"Palm remains the largest maker of handhelds, despite a 30 per cent drop in
units shipped to 638,000 in the second quarter of 2005. Runner up HP showed an
even larger drop as shipments fell 40 per cent to 322,000 units."

(http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2140442/pda-sales-keep-slipping)

>I bet if you broke out that [HP iPaq] division and compared it to Palm,
>Palm would be financially healthier.

Good news. Your dog is sicker than my dog...

Archived from groups: comp.sys.palmtops.pilot (More info?)

In message <1123443619.374685.82370@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com> "JC"
<jcandito@gmail.com> wrote:

>Still there are recent stats that indicate Palm OS has gone from a
>leading 40% of PDA market share in 2004 to a disasterous 20% this year.
> The financials do not look good. See this article 8-4-05 in
>vnunet.com:
>
>"Palm has had a disastrous year, losing nearly half its market share
>and its position as the PDA top dog"
>
>"Manufacturer PalmOne is estimated to have just 17.8 per cent of the
>PDA hardware market, compared to 33.2 per cent this time last year"
>
>http://tinyurl.com/7o3oo

There are a few reasons, one of the big ones is that many "smart-phones"
are running WinCE-derived OSes, whereas not much is happening in the
Palm world in this area.

Second, there have been a ton of "Free PPC" type promotions (with
purchase of a desktop or something else much larger), which artificially
increases the PPC percentages.

--
'Outlook not so good.'
That magic 8-ball knows everything!

Archived from groups: comp.sys.palmtops.pilot (More info?)

In article <m0adf11lbebpgftrn15bhr6hk4qtj7bpdj@4ax.com>,
AaronJ <noemail@noemail.com> wrote:

> Good news. Your dog is sicker than my dog...

Too true!

At least PalmOne, now Palm, is profitable. I have my doubts about HP
iPaq.

Archived from groups: comp.sys.palmtops.pilot (More info?)

Tom Lake <tlake@twcny.rr.com> wrote:

> That one is most likely true, in its present form. The new OSes will run on
> top of Linux.

Any idea on when we might see this new OS running on top of Linux on a
palm device?

Archived from groups: comp.sys.palmtops.pilot (More info?)

On Mon, 8 Aug 2005 12:13:13 -0400, Eric wrote:

>Tom Lake <tlake@twcny.rr.com> wrote:
>
>> That one is most likely true, in its present form. The new OSes will run on
>> top of Linux.
>
>Any idea on when we might see this new OS running on top of Linux on a
>palm device?

If PalmOS 6 is any indication...

--
"I'd far rather be happy than right any day."
- Slartibartfast

Archived from groups: comp.sys.palmtops.pilot (More info?)

In article <42f79333$0$16826$bb4e3ad8@newscene.com>,
jeff <jeff@invalid.spam> wrote:

> Guy Bannis wrote:
> > In article <1123398240.739860.84560@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com>,
> > "JC" <jcandito@gmail.com> wrote:
> > ...
> > That's a PocketPC site. And what they "report" is contradictory and full
> > of errors.
> >
> > At one point it says the Palm OS is dead and a paragraph later says the
> > next Palm OS will run on Linux and in phones.
>
> Nope - the article says that PalmOS, AS WE KNOW IT, is dead. This is
> not the same as "PalmOS id dead." A PalmOS that runs on Linux is
> clearly not PalmOS as we know it.
>
> Jeff

Perhaps you should address the Subject line of this thread as well.

Archived from groups: comp.sys.palmtops.pilot (More info?)

Spoken as a true engineer! Thanks for the excellent overview!

- Chris

Logan Shaw <lshaw-usenet@austin.rr.com> writes:

> Guy Bannis wrote:
>> In article <11cf3$42f73331$185a1e7a$15517@news.flashnewsgroups.com>,
>> "Scooterflex" <scootertrasher@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>>>"We reported last week that PalmSource had halted all non-Linux development"
>>>Read that again... halted non-Linux development. So, that means that all the
>>>old stuff has stopped being developled, it just re-iterates what it said in
>>>the first sentence.
>
>> The writer should also know that non-Linux development is halted
>> temporarily until the first Linux whatever-it-is is released next
>> year. PalmSource has not announced that Garnet/Cobalt are obsolete.
>
> I think what's going on here is that lots of people are failing to see
> the difference between an operating system and a kernel. A kernel is
> just one part of an operating system, and it probably comprises less
> than half of the code on most operating systems.
>
> PalmSource's efforts with Linux involve using the Linux kernel only
> as a replacement for the custom kernel they developed for Cobalt.
> They have switched kernels before (2 or 3 times, actually), and now
> they are switching kernels again, this time to Linux.
>
> THIS DOES NOT MEAN THEY HAVE STOPPED DEVELOPING PALM OS!!
>
> What it means is that they have two branches of Palm OS: (a) the
> original (with their own custom kernel), and (b) the new branch
> where that ONE COMPONENT has been (is being) replaced with the
> Linux kernel. And they have stopped development on the older branch.
> "All non-Linux development" is simply a short way of saying
> "all development on the non-Linux branch of Palm OS".
>
> The branch which includes the Linux kernel is still Palm OS. It
> will still, probably, look the same and contain a lot of the same
> code and retain compatibility with the old applications. And it
> will probably NOT run any applications that normally run on Linux
> distributions, because it does not include the numerous other pieces
> that Linux distributions include besides the Linux kernel.
>
> The change that PalmSource is making is not that big a deal. It
> is really the same type of change they made when they made the
> switch from Palm OS 4.x to Palm OS 5.x. When they did that, they
> started with a whole new kernel and replaced lots of the guts, yet
> at the level that a user sees (and at the level that most application
> programmers see) there are few if any significant differences.
> Nobody had a strong reaction when they stopped development on
> the 4.x branch of Palm OS to focus on the 5.x branch, and I don't
> see why any kind of strong reaction is warranted with the change
> from Cobalt with PalmSource's kernel to Cobalt with the Linux kernel,
> except perhaps that Linux is a big buzzword that encourages people
> to jump to conclusions. (If they were going back to the KADAK kernel
> or some other third-party kernel, I wonder if this would even be a
> news item!)
>
> - Logan

--
(. .)
=ooO=(_)=Ooo========================
Chris McMahan | cmcmahan-at-one.net
====================================

Archived from groups: comp.sys.palmtops.pilot (More info?)

Guy Bannis wrote:
> In article <42f79333$0$16826$bb4e3ad8@newscene.com>,
> jeff <jeff@invalid.spam> wrote:
>
>
>>Guy Bannis wrote:
>>
>>>In article <1123398240.739860.84560@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com>,
>>> "JC" <jcandito@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>...
>>>That's a PocketPC site. And what they "report" is contradictory and full
>>>of errors.
>>>
>>>At one point it says the Palm OS is dead and a paragraph later says the
>>>next Palm OS will run on Linux and in phones.
>>
>>Nope - the article says that PalmOS, AS WE KNOW IT, is dead. This is
>>not the same as "PalmOS id dead." A PalmOS that runs on Linux is
>>clearly not PalmOS as we know it.
>>
>>Jeff
>
>
> Perhaps you should address the Subject line of this thread as well.

Okay... Palm is not dead. Palm OS is not dead. Palm OS is being
rewritten to run on top of Linux. If done well, this seems (to me at
least) to be a positive step, which should help Palm to survive threats
from Microsoft, and others, at least for a while.