14 DAY TRIAL // This Thursday at CES 2009 in Las Vegas, Palm is expected to unveil its latest mobile device, which would feature the company's newest operating system, and some details on the launch have already made it to the Web. The new smartphone is reported to come with a full QWERTY keyboard, which should slide down under the touchscreen of the handset, while the long-awaited Linux-based operating system is said to be “amazing.”
The new OS, expected to come under the codename Nova, is reported to be able to power a new generation of smartphones as well as other devices. According to an article on the San Francisco Chronicle, Palm has the chance to strike again with the new OS on a market that is led by RIM's BlackBerry and Apple's iPhone.
“The bottom line is this is Palm's last gasp. They have to come out with a new OS to make themselves relevant again,” said Jack Gold, analyst for J.Gold Associates. “Their old OS is a geriatric case. It's been around for a long time and has been marginally improved, but it hasn't kept pace with the iPhone or (Google) Androids of the world.”
According to the news reports, Palm's new OS should take over its oldest platform, which is still used on smartphones, yet the company will continue to offer handsets running Windows Mobile. Although it hasn't unveiled too many details on the new software, it seems that Palm plans to target the mid-market, so as to fit between iPhone, which is focused on consumers, and the BlackBerry, which aims at a rather corporate profile.
“People's work and personal lives are melding,” Palm CEO Ed Colligan is reported to have said. The news story further states that the company might also prepare a mobile Internet device to run the OS, one larger than the aforementioned handset.
Palm seems to be betting a lot on the new OS, since this would be its chance to reenter the market it has ceded to others, yet there are some doubting its capabilities. “There's no momentum behind Palm,” said analyst Pablo Perez-Fernandez of Global Crown Capital. “There's really no room for Palm. If you ask new developers if they want to write for a marginalized company or a company like Apple, the answer is obvious.”