PalmSource will go after the emerging smart-phone market with its latest operating system, looking to grow beyond its core handheld business. As expected, the market-share leader in handheld operating systems plans to announce on Tuesday the Cobalt 6.1, its first product specifically aimed at smart phones, at a developer conference in Munich.
PalmSource to unveil smart-phone software
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Eugenia Loli
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Cobalt, which was announced a long time ago, is not for Smartphones. GRANITE, which is the current OS on Palm devices, is for Smartphones. Cobalt is for everything else.
Or so Palm have been saying since they announced the two operating systems.
OS5.x is renamed Granite and is for Smartphones.
The new OS (OS6 aka Cobalt) is for T5, etc
First of all its Garnet. Second both operating systems have versions designed for phones. Garnet is designed for low end smartphones and Cobalt for high end smartphones.
The articles predicated the success of palm OS smartphones on data and i disagree with this.
The gui on phones with proprietary operating systems are horrible. Palm OS on lower end phones (as opposed to treos) would be a welcome addition if they offered a decent gui and easy functionality just for basic PIM and phone type of stuff, like say your settings.
I also disagree that palm is too late. My understanding is that palm intends to address sub $200 maybe $300 phones, not including subsidies. You can’t get windows smart phone on many (any?) phones in that price range. Symbian is nice but the operators welcome diversity and they welcome a well thought out design that might encourage data use. Plus they don’t want to create another microsoft.
“I also disagree that palm is too late. My understanding is that palm intends to address sub $200 maybe $300 phones, not including subsidies. You can’t get windows smart phone on many (any?) phones in that price range.”
The Motorola Mpx series falls within that price range. Possibly others, but those I know off hand.
What will the be the deciding factor is whether Palm can get a good relationship going with some major mobile phone carriers such as Vodafone, Optus, Telstra, Orange, T-Mobile etc. etc. If they get a good number on board, the mobile phone companies will offer deals, where by they (the carriers) subsidise the hand set in the hope that the end user will use their extra services which are available on the PalmSource based phones.
“If they get a good number on board, the mobile phone companies will offer deals, where by they (the carriers) subsidise the hand set in the hope that the end user will use their extra services which are available on the PalmSource based phones.”
Wait a minute! This is about PalmSource – the source code operation of Palm – and they don’t do handsets. Meanwhile, the current market leaders are using stuff like Symbian’s OS which seems to offer lots of traditional PDA functions right down to the low end. Meanwhile, where the leading edge action is – China – there seems to be a pretty significant uptake of Linux.
Palm and associates have a lot to worry about: ‘phones are taking over from traditional PDAs. And Apple should be concerned too: ‘phones are also going to offer a pretty convincing way of storing/playing music (they probably already do in Japan) as well as all that PDA stuff; fantasising about Apple moving into handsets (as the fanboys do) really requires a vivid imagination given that even Sony had to buy their way into the mobile ‘phone game in order to parade their expertise effectively.
“The Motorola Mpx series falls within that price range. Possibly others, but those I know off hand.”
I am talking about the actual price of the phone not the sales price. The sales price often has a subsidy. A phone that sells for $200 without subsidies is going to have a BOM (bill of materials) of about $140-$160.
The motorola may or may not be subsidized to fall into that range. I honestly do’t know. It might be more accurate to say that palm must be targeting phones with BOMs of $150 and below with garnett and more expensive devices with cobalt.