“Palm Inc. is teaming up with Microsoft Corp. to launch a Windows-based version of the Treo smart phone, marking the first time the handheld computer pioneer will sell a device based on its former rival’s software… The new device will run on Windows Mobile 5.0, the latest version of the operating system that has been challenging Palm OS for years,” Greg Sandoval reports for The Associated Press.
Sandoval reports, “The new Treo 700 will be offered through Verizon Wireless, according to market analyst Rob Enderle and other industry sources. ‘In terms of the level of importance, this would be in this space the same thing as Apple announcing they were going to be using Intel processors,’ Enderle said.”
Full article here.
As usual, Enderle gets it wrong. This would be like Apple announcing they were dropping Mac OS X for Windows XP.
If Palm was “the handheld computer pioneer,” what was Apple? See Newton.
BTW, Palm, you’re dead to us.
Hate to break it to ya MDN, but Palm has been basically dead for 3 years now already. Not to even mention that their Mac support has been MIA for quite a while now as well…
Palm haters: please help me.
O.K. I’m a hard core Mac user and a user of a Tungsten E. I HAVE to update info when I’m away, so just using a phone isn’t an option. I need a true PDA like the Palm.
I use Palm Desktop software to manage my contacts, time, todo’s. I actually like it better than Apple’s iCal and Address Book. Just personal pref. No biggy.
So what the shmuck do I do? The “Palm is dead” mentality is fine if you don’t use a PDA. But what about those of us who do?
Opinions?
Gracias! -Joe
The last good Palm… That is, the last time a Palm had a product that didn’t suck… was the last time they were called Palm, with the Palm V…
Still, I found the darn thing silly, though I never did handheld “computers” in practice. They always sounded better in marketing descriptions.
Even if Apple made such a device, and it worked as well as, or better than OS X, I doubt I would ever buy one. The iPod nano does all I care about, and does it simply and very well.
Of course, I have a fancy camera-phone that gets used as just a phone, and nothing more.
If Enderle isn’t the tech world’s most clueless sonofabitch, please tell me who is.
Joe Van Wyk,
For contacts, calendar, to do’s, you might want to use an iPod, even if you’ll have to use iCal and Address Book. iPod nano supports Address Book and iCal on the Mac and Outlook or Outlook Express on Windows, plus vCalendar and vCard file support. iPod also syncs your to-do lists.
My Palm is covered in dust since I realized my iPod does everything I used my Palm for previously.
http://www.apple.com/ipodnano/features.html
Joe Van Wyk,
Oh, if you need connectivity – get a ROKR. – All of the iPod features and your can use the phone and browse the web.
OK…
I use a palm V…yep…four years old.
It’s my digital text input when I’m away from my Mac. iPod…keyboard? Course Not!
I’ve got an iPod too…(I like having both sync)
That’s me.
Fred Mertz,
The reason crickets are chirping in response to your question is:
Enderle is the tech world’s most clueless sonofabitch.
Joe Van Wyk,
Get an Apple Newton off eBay. I did in the spring of this year and it’s awesome! People are always asking me about it and it does everything and so much more than you can think of – look at these sites:
http://www.oldschool.net/newton/os.html
http://newted.dyndns.org/
That’s a great idea. Better yet buy a brick and carry it around. it’s anout the same size, same weight and it has the same functionality… There’s a reason Newtons are longer used.
Newton is alive and well, thanks:
Apple Newton fans keep platform alive
This is something Apple needs to consider. If the Mac platform becomes too isolated from cool third party devices and technologies it could make the Mac less attractive. Imagine if the iPod wasn’t an Apple product and only worked with Windows. If Treo like devices get really cool in the future but only sync with Windows-based PC’s it will give heartburn to even the most loyal Mac user. In a larger sense Mac people are just fans of cool tech, which Apple makes more readily than everyone else. However, in the future some of the coolest tech might be handheld devices Apple doesn’t want to make themselves (ie, cell phones, smart phones/PDAs, cameras, etc.)
Aw, that’s sad. I really like Palm. The original Palms were great, and when they bought out Handspring, they made the Treo 600 & 650 really great devices. Phone, web (best mobile browser in town), music with removable media (take that, ROKR!), and with growing software support.
And OODLES faster than the Windows mobile devices. PalmOS rules, Windows Mobile drools.
Sad to see them go. MDN – don’t give up on them just yet. Maybe MS will flop with this device, and Palm will get back to business.
That makes the ‘Return of Newton’ all the more likely.
First time I’m going to:
MW = ‘Job.’ As in … “Jobs is ready to do the job right.”
Mismanagement of the decade.
Palm splits up the hardware and software into two companies. The software company runs into some difficulties. All of Palm’s rivals see the weak and naked Palm OS there for the plucking, and swarm in to own it for themselves. Finally a Japanese software developer outbids them all and owns the Palm OS.
The hardware division, seeing their Palm OS being tossed around like a cheap whore, has no choice but to sign onto the death star for further instructions.
BTW, I love my Treo 650, and it works brilliantly with the Mac. All my software installs and syncs using my mac, and the Mac community will be worse off if there is no mac friendly mobile platform.
Apple should have created Darwin mobile for Palm, if only to establish a foothold there.
MW = “trouble” as in here is comes for Palm. They will now have to wait for Microsoft to try and innovate.
I can’t believe this, but I agree with PC Apologist.
First the Newton, now Palm… What else is next?! Intels in Macs?!
Oh… wait…
i have had five PalmOS handhelds; i really like them. i use a ‘doze box at work, with two Macs at home. never had a problem using PalmOS. if Palm attempts to release anything using that sorry excuse of an “os” that ‘doze craps out, well, that device will never see the inside of my house!
Thanks for the input, but I said I have to be able to input data when I’m away. As in, tap, tap, tap. You know, change appointments, add todo’s, add addresses?
I have two ipods. I don’t need another “read only” device.
-j
As this subject is about Palm going Windows Mobile on their next Treo 700 I will after telling myself that it might be okay to digress off that subject for a moment as right now I could and would like to knock the front row of Bill Gate’s teeth out and throw the entire chairs in the M$ boardroom at Ballmers head!
The reason, today the failings of Windows delayed me to the point where I got home at 8.15pm from college. For two and a half hours I was delayed at registration as Windows had crashed. I had a lot of other things to do at college other than register and that only compounded my hatred for Windows.
When will the world learn and wake up and smell the coffee – or should that be Mac OSX?
I can go on with other incidents this past weekend with Windows causing havoc, my dad’s girlfriend on her way home to the Philippines on Cathay Pacific via Hong Kong was delayed by 3 hours as the check in desk’s Windows computer had crashed and meant the captain could not take off as the same system gives him his cargo weight and without that, well you wouldn’t want your flight to be flying on a guestimate on its weight.
Now once I’d got home my sister in laws Dell supplied by her college, not mine btw, decided to delete the settings for the USB Adapter that I had spent 5 hours trying to set up in the first place on last Thursday. Yes I do want her to dump that crummy Dell and get an iBook instead!
Personally I never liked the Palm OS anyways, so I’m glad to see that some of the devices will transition to Windows Mobile, which is, IMO, a much more capable OS for a smartphone.
BRING ON THE APPLE MADE PDA-phone!!!!!
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”wink” style=”border:0;” /> I can only hope!!!!
Is this the beginning of the end of the PalmOS? Like Joe, I use my Treo 90 mainly for writing while on the move, then the data goes into my Mac at the end of the day, and yes I use my iPod to keep tabs if I don’t have the Treo handy. I like the PalmOS much better than my colleague’s PocketPC for calendar management and to-dos. I’ve resisted a Treo 650 because of worrying reports of poor phone performance but I might have to snap one up before they become obsolete.
Windows Mobile is a more capable OS for a smartphone than Palm OS? The first WinMob viruses are going around in Japan. Get ready to implement a mobile viruschecker.
Apple should’ve jumped into the mobile computing space — they could dominate the higher end consumer space, to begin with.
I use my Palm sure, but my girlfriend is better.
For those who have Treo…do you use web browser? What is monthly service fee?