PalmOne continues getting it, now how about PalmSource?
The recent news is about PalmOne (the hardware company) laying off people and refocusing on smart phones. That's interesting, because it's a continuation of the Handspring focus and not the wrong-headed "sell 'em cheap" Zire approach... which company bought which again? The Treo is lustworthy and if the the Treo 610 rumors are true (and I'm sure they are) then that will be even more of a cool-ass device. Not that I see PalmOne giving much problem to Nokia, but it's nice to have options.
Now what about PalmSource (the OS company)? Anyone else still get confused when they read headlines about these companies and have to go back and re-read and figure out which is which? I do... this morning for example I was thinking that maybe PalmSource got their head out of their behinds and decided to focus PalmOS 6 on mobiles. But nope... that's not the news. PalmSource's plan, in case you hadn't heard, is to repurpose PalmOS 5 as a smart phone OS and continue PalmOS 6's focus on the PDA and "move up" to a laptop-like device. There's not going to *be* a PDA market in a couple years and no one wants a limited functionality laptop. Psion tried that years ago and it didn't work. Why does PalmSource think it can rewrite history?
So if you ask me, PalmOne gets it. Focusing on smart phones and embracing Java on their hardware shows they understand what the future holds for mobile devices. It's a *real* shame that PalmSource continues to be run by lobotomized crack monkeys.
-Russ