Focus on Mobile Platforms: Palm OS / webOS

22 June 2009 by Shaun 4 Comments

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Focus on Mobile Platforms: Palm OS / webOS

Introduced: 1996

History: Palm OS was once so popular every handheld device was called a Palm Pilot by people who did not understand PDAs. To this day, the phrase lives on and I still hear it occasionally. Palm nailed mobile operating systems right from the start, or rather Jeff Hawkins did, and Palm OS was simple, effective and most importantly had a short learning curve for anyone new to mobile computing. The majority of people were new to mobile computing back then, but the Grafitti input system, long battery life and stability made it the perfect tool for business people and casual users alike.

Thousands of software titles appeared and it soon dispatched Psion who failed to market properly in America. Only Windows Mobile remained as a competitor and the battle was on. For many years Palm OS ruled the roost and to this day lots of people still believe it to be the best mobile operating system ever. Personally I loved it and to this day only EPOC stands above it for speed, stability and class.

Over time, Palm moved to the smartphone market (invented it really) and then completely stopped innovating. Everyone else caught up and then overtook Palm OS, which was hampered by being unable to utilise 3G, and Palm came close to extinction last year.

Hardware partners: None. Sony and others tried in the past, but moved on.

Notable devices: Palm V, Sony Clie N770CU, Treo 650

Current Position: Palm OS has almost no market share left and webOS is too new to judge at this time.

Likely users: A diverse range of technical and non-technical consumers.

Potential: Palm OS is dead. webOS has just been born and time will tell as to how well it can infiltrate a market which has moved on from niche to global. Without doubt webOS is second best to iPhone in terms of all round appeal, but will Palm have the muscle and foresight to 1) keep ahead of the game and 2) let developers develop and find an angle to bust the other platforms.

There is a tremendous affection for Palm as a brand and this may well be enough to keep things ticking along. Money is a concern with Palm, but if it keeps its head above water for another year we may well see Palm become a big force again.

4 Comments »

DavidGreen said:

I like PalmOS so much that I’m going back; at least for a while. I am dumping WinMob because of its performance and reliability.

I’d make the leap to WebOS, but for cost and availability, but when it does well, then I’ll cross over to the Pre 2 (when it exists).

# 22 June 2009 at 8:36 am

George Torres said:

Unfortunately it would appear that PALM OS as such in fact is dead. I do not see PALM supporting it and committing the efforts it will need to commit to the new WebOS. Imagine if you would the world that the SONY CLIE and other assorted companies could have gone to if PALM had kept the edge. This is do or die for PALM. So far so good but its going to take alot of word of mouth to keep ahead of the curve. I’m still loading info into my TX just in case. I like what I see so far and do hope for the best.

# 22 June 2009 at 3:56 pm

lazyboy said:

For someone who hated math at school, as an adult I find myself relentlessly fascinated by simple arithmetic and statistics. So, when I heard that there were supposedly 700,000 downloads from the Web OS app store during the Pre’s first ten days on the market, I put my investor’s hat on and started working up a thesis.

And if you read between the lines, this isn’t good news for Palm or the Pre.

There were 18 apps at launch, and this number has subsequently risen to 30 – most or all of them free, so far as I can tell. Now, I’m willing to bet that many of those Pre early adopters have been downloading most of those apps just for the heck of it and because that’s all they have to chose from.

Let’s say, conservatively, that each user has downloaded 7 apps. That adds up to 100,000 Pre’s sold. But, if the average number of downloads is much higher than that, those numbers start looking really anaemic. At a dozen downloads each, it would mean only 58,000 Pre’s were sold in the first 10 days or so. With Palm still haemorrhaging cash, I’m not sure that is enough to save the company.

Palm desperately needs to create some real public awareness of this device, not just buzz on the blogosphere. Unfortunately, Sprint’s advertising for the Pre has been lamentable, and Palm’s, while slicker than anything the company has previously done, is more warm and fuzzy than convincing.

(Aside: concepts like multi-tasking, Synergy are tough to explain to the general consumer, and that’s where all the growth is coming from.)

Changewave’s latest survey of smartphone buying intentions shows the mountain Palm has to climb, with only 8% of smartphone buyers saying they are considering the Pre (and that was during the week when Pre-hype was at its height and the first real reviews were being published). In the same survey, the iPhone commanded 44% and the Blackberry 23%.

So long as it sticks with Sprint, Palm is dead. On Verizon, it stands a chance. Unfortunately, Palm doesn’t seem to have the manufacturing capacity to produce more than a trickle of phones, and it’s going to need more than a trickle to get any kind of market traction. Some kind of international rollout is also urgently needed.

Then there are problems with the device and OS itself which have been highlighted over and over again in user reviews.
- battery life
- sluggish performance
- build quality issues
- keyboard that is too small for comfortable use
- price
- no SDK yet
- no developer momentum
- Even the Pre’s headline-grabbing multitasking, Synergy and notifications system have come in for some flak.

The Pre is in danger of falling through the cracks between the iPhone on the one hand, and the BlackBerry on the other. In other words, it comes up short as a general consumer device and lacks the corporate nous of a BlackBerry. It’s in a kind of no-man’s land at the moment. Alarm bells started ringing for me when Palm’s chief investor McNamee was vague about who the device was aimed at in an interview (with CNBC, I think); he dithered, hummed and hawed, then blurted out “Err… women.”

It’s possible that Palm will get bought out by someone like Dell, someone with deeper pockets who can give WebOS the push it needs and who’s looking to jump start a move into smartphones.

More likely though is that Palm just has to grit its teeth for a long hard slog back to profitability.

Future: unclear and uncertain.

# 23 June 2009 at 1:40 pm

DavidGreen said:

I can only agree with lazyboy in many of these points.

Price and Availability prevents me from going to Pre. I would have used the Pre, even in ‘classic’ mode with my legacy of Palm applications.

I would also like to develop Palm Pre applications, but since I am not one of the select few who have been granted access to the SDK, that’s obviously not going to happen.

Enthusiastic developers will flesh-out their App Store, which I think most would agree, couldn’t hurt, even if they are only simple applications to start with.

I concur that Palm is at risk, but I hope that they survive.

# 23 June 2009 at 2:25 pm