PalmSource is working on a new operating system called Sahara (PalmOS 6) that the company hopes will make the Palm OS more useful in corporate settings, Chief Executive David Nagel said Wednesday. It is expected near the end of the year.
PalmSource Aims OS at Businesses
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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Palm is really doing everything right lately. lets see if those actions translate to the bottom line. All the palm bashers who said that MS would rule the PDA world must be hating this. I’d also point out that while symbian devices are very cool looking, symbian is failing to take similar steps. They seem to be relying exclusively on being the child of a consortium, which can get you quite far. Regardless, palm is looking good these days.
It would be foolish if Palm abandoned individual customers in their attempt at making the product more attractive to corporate sales. If, for example, they plan on adding lots of corporate features to the devices, they ought still maintain a model with basic functions to target regular buyers. I think that Handspring has focused too much on phone-integration, for example. It has lead me away from wanting their products because I don’t want any of the three or four models they offer (I don’t want a keyboard, and can’t use the phone’s service in my area, yet that’s all they have to offer right now that is new and color).
This is actually ironic that this news was posted. My company purchased about 60 palms (m100s) to be used in the stores along with a Versid unit that takes and records temperatures of prepared foods. These Palms were absolute peices of s**t. The digitizers on them would break constantly, and it was always the same thing: the bottom row of the digitizer would go out, and would no longer be sensitive to touch. We were replacing on average about 5 per week. This continued on for a year so finally the company decided to purchase older models of the Palm, the Palm IIIe, which I am sitting here now setting up 60 of them, as they will be replacing every single m100 that is in the stores now. I would never in my life purchase a Palm. Not only do I think the OS is horrible, but from seeing how crappy these things are, I wouldnt spend $10 on one at a yard sale. If you want a PDA that has a good chance of lasting more than a year, don’t buy a Palm. I’m surprised they’re still in business.
the m100 are the crappiest palms ever made..Well second to the original zires(plastic pos for $99).
So your company was just dumb to deploy the most(intentionally) low quality palmos pda on the market. Should’ve spent an extra 10-30% and got a handspring unit instead.
next time do your research before buying the cheapest solution out there.
Well if I was responsible for the purchasing, I would have. And I always did mention that they should have gone with handspring. But I’m not sure if the Versid units we use are compatible with Handsprings, since they plug into the hot sync port. And to make it worse, the company they just bought all these IIIe’s off of is terrible. I guess they didnt research it, but I read some user comments on the company on the internet, and they weren’t good. Out of the 60 we ordered, 10 were DOA. Once again, they went with a cheap solution, and once again, it’s going to come back and bite them in the ass financially.
Could it be a moisture problem? There is a lot of moisture in hot kitchens and cold freezers. If so, then your company has to buy the industrial versions of the PDA’s.
Industrial PalmOS use should always be on an IBM workpad, assuming they still exist…
Far better build quality… my IIIXE breaks down so often its synced more often to the backups system in Dixons than to my home PC
Anyone else feel Palm ought to be putting their OS forward for laptops and web pads and other small computers as well as PDas?
its small size is a bonus none of the competition can beat, especially with the new features outlined here.
I think if they were to do that, they should just resurrect BeOS.
“Anyone else feel Palm ought to be putting their OS forward for laptops and web pads and other small computers as well as PDas?”
I couldn’t agree more. OS 6 sounds like it is pretty powerful. ARM Clockspeeds and performance are pretty high, and the user could get a nice boost in battery life from a more efficient OS combined with a more efficient processor compared to windows on x86. Software support is also coming along. I suspect some changes would need to be made to the gui and the way the system displays windows but those don’t seem to be deal killers.
If palmsource and its partners don’t introduce larger devices, especially laptops within the next two years then i will be amazed.
I have been hoping Palm would do something like that for a long time now… it certainly would make sense, like ryan explained.
Imagine a modernized version of one of these:
http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=356
running a PalmOS/BeOS-ish hybrid. *drool* If they were cheap enough, like say $300 or $400, imagine how useful they would be to college students, and business-type people who don’t want to lug around a laptop all day.
Hehe, the Portofolio. I used two of them in my life…
I got an atari portfolio….for those who dont beleive me ill scan it!
Bought it for 10 bucks half a year ago on a norwegian Auction site….got manual (still in plastic) and diskettes that come with it…..
well OS 5 should have been what 6 is.
5 was nothing more than just 4 with Bluetooth support.
They also need to clean their API up. Perhaps the ex-Be engineers have helped in this area …
I find it funny you take an executive’s word for real. Let’s just wait when OS 6 is release…