Palm's new OS getting more delays?

The hits just don't seem to be stopping for Palm these days. In the last few weeks we've watched the Foleo debacle unravel, seen the underwhelming Treo 500v announcement, and gotten word that the Elevation Partners partial sale has gone through (a small ray of light, really) -- but it appears we're not done yet. According to a scathing report in The Guardian, Palm is now projecting a 12- to 18-month wait on the new, Linux-based version of its OS (Palm OS II to you and me), which is a considerable extension compared to the dates we heard back in July (which, of course, were just more delays in a long line of empty promises), and puts the oft-hindered software closer to a 2009 release. No offense guys, but you've been talking about this OS for about five years, all while Windows Mobile, RIM, and Symbian have lapped you... repeatedly. Maybe you can get the open source community to lend a hand? They're quite crafty.

[Via Brighthand]

[Dias @ Sep 15th 2007 7:04PM]

Why don't they just buy a Windows Mobile license? It's a good solid OS and widely used in business area.

[Mitch R. @ Sep 15th 2007 7:35PM]

They sell Windows Mobile devices. Personally, I'd much rather have a much less clunky OS on my phones.

[mapin @ Sep 15th 2007 11:43PM]

windows mobile is a good solid OS ???? hahahahahahahahahaha

I had a WM5 HTC Wizard for a year and the OS sucked. Daily soft resets with slow interface, reminded me of windows (which i dropped for mac ages ago). Now i have a sweet blackberry pearl that has a rock solid OS, no more rebooting the phone.

Palm is done for, I've lost hope in them.

[Dias @ Sep 15th 2007 7:04PM]

Why don't they just buy a Windows Mobile license? It's a good solid OS and widely used in business area.

[Mark @ Sep 15th 2007 7:22PM]

The thing that gets me is that Nokia even pumped out a tablet with a linux os in less time (which I switched to after the disappointment of a buggy T|X.) Palm really seems to be dragging their feet. I've been a fan of their products for years but the delays are disappointing, and even something so simple as an improvement to their browser to tide users over until a full revamp would be welcomed.

[derek @ Sep 15th 2007 7:24PM]

Hahahhaa that's just pitiful. Palm is crashing and burning, just like everyone guessed.

[strider_mt2k @ Sep 15th 2007 7:36PM]

House of Usher.

[Legodude522 @ Sep 16th 2007 4:08PM]

Hey Strider, I miss seeing you on the Palm forums.

[strider_mt2k @ Sep 16th 2007 4:38PM]

legodude, I miss having a reason to be there. :(

All the best to you sir! :D

[BrandonG777 @ Sep 15th 2007 7:44PM]

Makes me wanna take my $400 LifeDrive and stick it up their ass. Wait I wanted to do that 3 years ago!

[strider_mt2k @ Sep 15th 2007 7:46PM]

Remove the microdrive first though, okay?

They have value.

[Legodude522 @ Sep 16th 2007 4:09PM]

Remove the sluggish 4gb microdrive. Install a 4gb CF card and sell the microdrive. :-) It's been done.

[Superevil @ Sep 15th 2007 7:49PM]

Didn't they buy BeOS a few years ago? Where the hell is it?

[Sean DL @ Sep 15th 2007 8:00PM]

Funny, I wonder if this how the fall of Apple in the 90s would of been if Blogs been around then...

[Lumptoe @ Sep 15th 2007 11:39PM]

We'll back then every financial magazine that currently writes glowing reviews of Apple were writing negative stuff.

[Mindfield @ Sep 15th 2007 8:10PM]

As I understand it, the new OS will be pretty powerful, and the phone they'll release it on will have a good CPU to harness it. To prove it, they will be bundling it with Duke Nukem Forever.

[yoshi @ Sep 15th 2007 8:17PM]

The open source community cannot help them. This isn't an engineering issue, it's a management issue. It screams of project management failure. Heads on poles is the only way to fix it.

[DrNeuralgia @ Sep 15th 2007 9:03PM]

it seems like they're imitating windows and vista

[Manny @ Sep 15th 2007 9:07PM]

I was a huge Palm fanboy way back to the time of the Palm Pilot Pro. Now its just so sad to see Palm languishing into irrelevance. I'm afraid my Treo 650 is the last Palm product I'll ever own.

[Lumptoe @ Sep 15th 2007 11:42PM]

My 700p is my last one. Contract is almost up but I will hang around to see who can react the best to the iPhone. iPhone was quickly becoming the best device but the latest reports shows that Apple has stopped the custom apps hack. Actually iTouch is almost enough for me. I don't mind carrying a separate and cheap phone.

[strider_mt2k @ Sep 16th 2007 8:35AM]

I sold my Clie two years ago, and haven't been interested by a Palm OS (or whatever they're calling it) device since.


Is it just me, or are we all sitting Shiva for Palm here?

I think we are.

[Aron Trimble @ Sep 15th 2007 9:09PM]

I was a huge fan of the Palm OS - back in 1999.. Now i'll just stick with my iPhone!

[Mike @ Sep 15th 2007 9:10PM]

Hopefully they are waiting on new technology, better hardware, or they really want to re-work the entire OS and make it perfect.

I used to be a fan of Palm's PDA's, then i had switched to a Sony UX-50 (PDA and not UMPC), witch was awsome until the screen quit out... So i decided to get a Treo 600 witch served its time well until i had a car door open and nail me right where it was... But since the new Palm OS is pulling a Duke Nukem for Ever, i dunno if i should go and try the iPhone, since i dont like windows mobile.

[Bryan Johnson @ Sep 15th 2007 9:22PM]

Yeah, I have loved Palm for years, but I am officially making the switch as I have placed my order for Windows Mobile 6 Sprint Mogul to replace my Treo.

[Satish @ Sep 15th 2007 9:22PM]

time for another letter from Engadget..... ;-)

[jonathan hirschman @ Sep 17th 2007 9:46AM]

Yes, time for another letter. Or an intervention.

Didn't the last letter mention something about learning to "fail quickly"?

I've been nursing my crappy, buggy E61 hoping for a return to the sweet arms of Palm goodness - but only once they got to a sane OS base. Guess that's not going to happen :(

[Satish @ Sep 15th 2007 9:22PM]

time for another letter from Engadget..... ;-)

[Satish @ Sep 15th 2007 9:23PM]

Time for yet another open letter from Engadget ;-)

[t3_slider @ Sep 16th 2007 12:25AM]

Post number 3...You realize that clicking that "Add Your Comments" button actually does add your comments, right?

[el-indiano @ Sep 15th 2007 9:43PM]

the iPhone will rule them all!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Lumptoe @ Sep 15th 2007 11:52PM]

I don't think so. iPhone was on my list until they stopped the ability to add third party hacks. See when people originally did this on the Palm the company just dealt with it. Palm was the biggest benefactor because many of the hacks is what has enabled the platform the last this long.

Within just a couple of months the iPhone was hacked an a couple of alpha level apps were released which made me want the device but I waited and Apple put a stop to it. They have taken the Sony PSP road instead of the Palm road.

[dj-kenpo @ Sep 16th 2007 12:16AM]

lumptoe this is the second time you've blathered on about apple stopping the hacks, where are you pulling this info out of? your a**?

[bushthevillageidiot @ Sep 15th 2007 11:44PM]

You really think a new Palm OS wil ever arrive?

Can you say:

COBALT!

HA HA ha hahahahahahahahahaha

I give in,


Adam

[uopercival @ Sep 15th 2007 11:53PM]

I too was a major fan of the Palm, and bought the very first Palm Pilot when it first came out at a then hefty $500. I've been the owner of a Palm IIIx, Tungsten T3, Treo 650. It's sad to see how a company that was doing well has gone down the dumps due to poor management or perhaps lack of vision.
As far as their latest project, the sub-notebook thing, where's the market for that? People have been moving away from the PDA towards smaller all-in-one solutions. Like we need to carry yet another larger device. They'd have more interest and profit if they spent their money on coming out with a new OS and phone. Wake up Palm! They shouldn't even bother announcing the upcoming OS, 18-months? Think about how you're going to regain the marketshare that Apple will own.
Sigh, how disappointing.

[Mindfield @ Sep 16th 2007 1:48AM]

The real problem with Palm was that they sat on their haunches coasting on the success of the PalmOS for far, far too long. Garnet, and the Tungsten|T that came with it was the last great innovation from Palm, and that was 5 years ago. Since then it's been only updates to Garnet, a few new devices, and promises of Cobalt that never materialized. They knew they had a lock on the market so they just sat there and raked in the cash -- until Windows Mobile started catching up in both capability and support. They realized their mistake about two years too late, and by that time WM started eating away at a significant portion of their market share. Now they're still at least a year and more away from even the hopes of trying to regain any of that market back, and that's kind of sad. I really hope they come out with something revolutionary, but I have my doubts.

[MaSa @ Sep 16th 2007 3:36AM]

Hi folks,
give Palm some credit. They gave us the TX (world's best PDA to me), they gave us the Treo (a very very good PalmOS based telephone). Annotation, folks don't listen to slander on the TX, been using one for 2 years now, I love this device.

Yes, they are hunted by WinMobile, Symbian and now MacOS now, and they have to hurry. But looking at the latest indications, I am sure that they will surprise us with a cool new line of products.

I guess: Announcement Sept. 27th, release mid of oct or november.

Ok, admitted: If there wont be what we all expect (TX+phone), the successor of my TX will be an iPhone.

I trust Palm and look forward to sept. 27th... :o)

[Ihar `Philips` Filipau @ Sep 16th 2007 5:48AM]

It is very hard to find good competent system programmers right now. (Hey! I'm one of them!!)

But it is even more complicated to keep them working in such management/sales driven companies - with any kind of history of success. (Same thing actually is happening inside of e.g. MSFT.)

Basically, all veteran folks inside of Palm would be against anything what is not PalmOS. All new folk - fresh blood who might help with newer technologies like Linux - would be shuffled to do some shit jobs waiting for the veterans inside of company to (as it is called sometimes) "architect a solution". What basically means "how can we change something without actually dropping stuff we already know/changing anything?" The process can go on for years.

I've dropped two jobs before because of that. And somehow I feel this is what is happening inside of Palm right now. No way they would dismiss old PalmOS folks and replace them with new Linux guys.

P.S. Recently I was looking for job and seen no offers from Palm. And I was looking (and actually found) *nix job pretty easily. Last time I have seen something from Palm, it was all about Java. And it was about J2EE. (Embedded software? J2EE?? Hardly connect.) Actually you can tell a lot about company by its job offers: they are made by managers and after some time you start reading from offers what kind of management company has and consequently what kind of company it is.

[MB @ Sep 16th 2007 6:22AM]

That really needs to be clarified because Palm (the hardware company) said they were going to develop their own OS based upon Linux yet have backwards compatibility to Garnet. ACCESS (the software company) who make Garnet which runs on all Palm units is working on Colbalt, the next generation of the OS.

So which is it? Palm's Linux OS delayed? ACCESS's Colbalt delayed? Okay, so Colbalt has been delayed a zillion times already but these stories need to be clearer as to what's going on.

ACCESS needs to ship Colbalt and it has to have multi-tasking with excellent communications abilities and backwards compatibility with Garnet.

Palm needs to come out with a Treo device that has WiFi, EVDO RevA (for CDMA users), 256MB of RAM, SDIO card slot, Bluetooth with stereo, a real headphone jack, stronger IR, mini USB port (get rid of the non-standard Universal Connector). Let software developers take care of developing goodies like multimedia and other things to grow the Palm ecosystem.

That iPhone is looking better all the time as my Treo 650 is long in the tooth. If the iPhone had an SD slot, 3G and DUN tethering I'd be sold in a New York second.

[B Blomberg @ Sep 16th 2007 9:03AM]

You Americans seem to be either fanboys or crazy for "news" without any sense of logic... Im from Sweden (Ericsson & Volvo country) and glad that Palm want to release a new OS that hopefully work perfect, from the beginning... And the "old" palm OS in my Treo 600 are still clearly superior to any other mobile OS and Garnet have since then got many improvements, including the generous addition of an excellent office package and fine multimedia programs... That's what really matters and NOT what version number the OS have... Remember also that it's much harder to dramatically improve an almost perfect OS as Garnet and if you think it look old (or don't like the design anyhow) can you simply change to many smooth skins.... But I must admit that Palm should change the version number, in the same pace as Windows and then should in fact Garnet be about version12 now!

[Licotto @ Sep 16th 2007 10:45AM]

You know, I'm looking at this now as hope for what may come. They scratched the Foleo -GOOD! They've rearranged the high-ups a bit -GOOD! Hmm, doesn't it seem like they're at least TRYING to switch their business model around!?! Give it a rest everyone!!! First of all, Windows Mobile is NOT for everyone! (me included!) The folks at mytreo.net sent Palm a blunt letter that essentially told them to pull their head out of their butts and start LEADING the market rather than drowning in it.

Engadget, most of the time I'm pretty impressed with your articles; however, I've looked through a lot of Palm articles but haven't found one where you have taken ACTION other than negative comment. hmm...that sucks. I am a Palm lover and I DO give Palm the benefit of the doubt because I really don't want to have to switch to another smartphone.

[json @ Sep 22nd 2007 11:16PM]

@licotto

stop hating on engadget for trying to light a fire under palms ass. the truth is palms OS is in engadgets top 5 for mobile (probably # 1 or 2)they hate to see it being wasted maybe because 80% of the office has treo's. i'm a big time lover of how simple palm is and i preach their greatness at work (usually before the phone resets because it needs a better update than whats out) engadget does it's fair share of mclovin palm and hating just like they do for everyone else