Palm's license to next-gen ALP to expire this December!
Trouble is a-brewing in Palm land. According to their most recent annual report, Palm is pulling out of a co-development agreement they had with PalmSource (now Access) in regards to the next-generation of Palm OS. They're obligated to pay through December 2, 2006, but they're stopping the multi-million dollar royalty payments after that due to a failure by PalmSource to meet certain promised milestones. Of course, milestones or no, a lack of royalties means a lack of a next-gen OS license to pep up our Treo. Palm states that they will keep producing new products based on the current version of the OS, and are "presently in negotiations with PalmSource to expand our development and distribution rights to the current version of the Palm OS." This would seem to imply that Palm wants to try their hand at their very own branch off of Palm OS 5, but if that were the case it would mean we're in for some more waiting -- the practice of which Palm users must be pretty good at by now.[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Donald @ Jul 29th 2006 6:43PM
It's enough to make you want to switch to S60.
korey @ Jul 29th 2006 9:28PM
ahaha so right donald ill take WM5 and Palm before S60 im all for a linux based OS but S60 sucks was thinking about it but i just ordered a 700p through sprint for i have not an HSPDA connection but plenty of that EV-DO so this means any new treos will have ALP not Garnett?
codelicious @ Jul 30th 2006 12:34PM
Palm OS is good for beginners, but it's too out dated. WM 5 beats it in every aspect. Palm OS was not designed for the mobile internet and multimedia. It was just for what it's need for PDA: address book, organizers, memos, and calendar. That's about it! WM5, S60, Symbian 8,9 are all superior than Palms!
Fishd @ Jul 31st 2006 11:05AM
@codelicious:
Yes and no. Yes wm5 is good at internet and multimedia... however, it is still horrible at memory management. All Windows Mobile devices I've ever tried work well on day one, slower on day two and need a soft reset on day three. A friend has the new O2 XDA IQ and this has to be reset everynow and again to restore Activesync functionality.
Palms multimedia capability out of the box is fairly limited, you can however add programs such as TCPMP for better video support and the later palms come with PocketTunes, a much better MP3 player that in my opinion at least rivals the WM10 player.
And, still only my opinion, but I find the program launcher for Palm is infinately superior to the start menu based WM5 - I've yet to see a WM5 device with the icon based launcher enabled.
Finally, I don't suppose I'd be a fair representation of a Palm user if I didn't trot out the old line of "Palm makes an excellent organiser" ... after all, if all I want is gaming, movies and music, well... I'd buy a PSP or something but I want my e-mails, my calendar and my contacts... something you so rightly admit the Palm is excellent at.
I'd love to like WM5, I really would. There are loads of WM5 devices to choose from but sadly everytime I try one I am left frustrated and return to a Palm device of some sort or other.
::Currently *still* loving my Treo650::
xakep @ Nov 18th 2006 4:18PM
Palm OS is good!