B. Mann Consulting

PalmSource's numbers come from US market watcher NPD, which tracks retail sales. During March, 47 per cent of the smart phones sold in the US through retail were based on the Palm OS, 20 per cent were based on the Symbian OS and the Series 60 UI (ie. Nokia and Sony Ericsson) and another 20 per cent used either of Microsoft's two smart phone-oriented Windows Mobile variants.

PalmOne pledges to boost Treo shipments | The Register

I've predicted the demise of Palm-based smartphones multiple times now, but that is likely because I keep thinking about European uses.

SIP stacks for handhelds and smartphones mean more edge devices plugging into the VoIP cloud. I had a discussion the other day about the lack of text messaging uses in North America. I actually think that we are so far behind in use that text messaging will get leap-frogged by IM and VoIP options.

Gphone solutions are based on VL Inc’s propriety GPhone engine. GPhone is focused on enabling high quality full duplex VoIP on resource constrained devices.
VL Inc: Palm GPhone Specs

Known to work with the Tungsten C, the requirements are listed as Palm OS 5.0 and a StrongARM 206 or better.

(via Jeff Pulver Blog)

Evan and I were talking about this the other day. Evan doesn't think that a takeover is Dell's style, and that a two-pronged strategy of PocketPC for their Axim product, and potentially Palm as a second platform wouldn't make sense. I of course countered with the fact that Dell ships both Windows and Linux pre-installed, but Evan was right when he pointed out that at least these two share the same hardware architecture.

I do think that Dell needs more "skin in the game" — handhelds and smartphones are going to become more ubiquitous as opposed to just selling more computers. With PalmOne (does any else get confused between the hardware company, and PalmSource, the software company?), Dell would get an entry not only into light-weight handhelds but also smartphones with the Treo line.

Evan still remains skeptical of a Dell takeover of PalmOne, but here is his parting comment: "Of course, if this brings the cost of the Treo down and makes it more available: bring it on!"

So Java is pretty far from its "write once, run anywhere" promise, especially when it comes to handhelds/phones. But, it is the only viable "platform" versus the MS/VBScript/.NET juggernaut.

Russell Beattie seems to agree while responding to an interview with David Nagle of PalmSource:

So that shows you where Palm is when it comes to Java: PDA Profile didn't turn out like they wanted it to and so now they're passing on J2ME. Oof. J2ME's not my favorite, but to pass on it (and Java) wholesale is a real loss. Nagle talks about competing with M$ but then blows off the primary weapon when it comes to Enterprise customers. What does he think, some corporate code jockey is going to write all of their custom code in non-portable C for the PalmOS?

VoIP capability for the Palm using WiFi, plus using GSM to sign-on -- and bill for -- WLAN service.

Head on in for the full story.

In my recent post about North America's need to build a wireless network, I admitted that I had been wrong about Palm. That they really were doomed. Turns out, The Inquirer has an article that agrees.

My view is that the rise of smartphones, with Symbian as the likeliest OS, is going to make Palm's market disappear. Those who need digital organizers will carry phones that include those features. The higher end is being staked out by much more capable devices, especially as computers become smaller and more portable while retaining their range of features and power (here's where tablets come in).

I've been talking about how North America is going to be toast if they don't hurry up and settle on a wireless standard. Europe is light years farther ahead, and it is becoming more and more obvious that both the post-PC era and networking in general are going to depend on ubiquitous wireless coverage.

Philip Greenspun's latest posting covers it a bit, with some history about the advantages that the US has had in the past versus Europe, and how it's Europe that's ahead with wireless:

After two days of touring Wales, a country that apparently has yet to discover the mixing faucet, it has become apparent that there is better mobile phone coverage in the remotest sheep pasture or coastal outcrop than in downtown Boston. How can such an otherwise backward place be so far ahead of the U.S. technologically?

Russell Beattie sits down and sketches out a categorization of different types of smartphones. I always find this incredibly useful for both explaining to myself and others different concepts that have a spectrum of capabilities.

Delineating Devices: Current Generation, Multimedia Mobiles and Intelliphones
I was struggling to explain to my wife recently what I was working on and the devices I was targeting. In that discussion, I ended up coming up with a sort of categorization that I'll talk about here. It's really helped me understand what I'm working on and for who.

Todd Bailey emailed me asking for my recommendations on what PDA to buy. I thought it might be interesting for others to chime in as well, plus I'd have my thoughts on it here for posterity.

BrightHand reports that Sony is preparing WiFi adapters in MemoryStick format. They already produced some CF adapters for their really high-end series, but this means that all the (recent) Clies should be able to do WiFi.

Yes, please. Ship it right over when you've got it finished.