14 DAY TRIAL // It seems that Sunnyvale phone maker Palm will not continue to use its PalmOS platform for upcoming handsets, but instead it plans on focusing on the development of the newly announced WebOS (which will come with the company's next-gen Pre device) as well as on phones powered by Microsoft's Windows Mobile operating system.
The news comes from Palm’s Ed Colligan, who talked to investors about Palm's future plans as well as about the company's current state. The PalmOS platform will still be spotted on the Centro, which is expected to be launched by new carriers during the ongoing year.
Palm also plans on launching an app store, and the best part is that its devices will not come locked, this way allowing users to install apps that are not only on the company's app store. In addition, it will also allow for applications to be “side loaded” directly over USB or even over the air from any provider. Colligan also stated that the company considered that there were a few apps that should be available at launch, and specifically mentioned Epocrates, a great medical app.
Palm seems to be expecting Pre to reach a few more markets in the near future, as Ed Colligan said. He didn't comment on the exclusivity Sprint would have on the device, but stated that the handset would reach new markets as well, including North America (Pre might get to Bell Canada as well), Latin America (where it would reach multiple carriers), as well as Europe (probably going with Vodafone). In addition, Palm also hopes that the exclusivity with Sprint will attract more US mobile phone operators. The company expects to be able to release the handset with more carriers in 2010.
Palm's representative also said a few words in what patents are concerned, and strongly affirmed that there were no legal actions with Apple pending at the moment. At the same time, he noted that the company had over 1500 patents (a 15-year expertise). According to him, the fight over patents is not as simple as it may seem.
“The reason you do that is to have a defensive position. It's like two little porcupines going around, and you don't want to touch each other because you might get stung. You peacefully coexist and everything's OK and you keep working together. We're very respectful about people's intellectual property, we believe we're huge innovators and have been for a lot of years and that this product has an enormous number of innovations in it. If something does happen there, we do have the portfolio, we think to defend ourselves and to be successful doing that. But nothing's happened to date, so we're really just focused on getting the product out the door,” were his words.
When it comes to the relationship between Palm and Sprint, the phone maker considers it a happy choice. To date, Sprint, which has more than 50 million subscribers, is the carrier that has the most PalmOS users.