Motorola prepping Palm OS-based Q2 for Sprint?

Palm began life as a software company (anyone remember bailing out their Newton's testy handwriting recognition by installing Graffiti?), and who the heck knows -- perhaps a software company again it will be. Okay, okay, it's way too early to be sounding the death knell on Palm's hardware operations, but let's be honest, wouldn't a Motorola Q9 running Palm OS instead of Windows Mobile make for an absolutely fabulous device (read: Treo / Centro killer) for the Palm OS faithful? We think so, and this Sprint promotional site makes mention of a "Q2" that, by all appearances, seems to be the aforementioned Palm-based Q9. We can't verify the legitimacy of this thing for a couple reasons: one, we've heard nary a peep about a Q2 on Sprint's or Motorola's roadmaps, and two, this same site makes no mention of the Q9c, a device that we do know is coming to Sprint in the next few weeks. Who knows, maybe this is all some well-executed ruse by a Sprint staffer -- but if not, we say kudos to Moto, Sprint, and Palm (and ACCESS, for that matter) for putting together what may be the best Palm handset on the market come the holidays.

[Via Boy Genius Report]

Update: Sure enough, the detail view for the Q2 lists Windows Mobile 6 among its specs, so it seems the Q9c will be officially known as the Q2 when it hits; the 'shopped Palm screen is nothing more than a major league screw-up on Sprint's part. Thanks, commenters!

[Herman Manfred @ Nov 10th 2007 6:29PM]

PALM doesn't own PalmOS and can't license it to others; Access does and can.

So if Motorola is coming out with a PalmOS-based anything, they either are merging with PALM (uh huh) or licensing it from Access.

[ekeown @ Nov 10th 2007 6:36PM]

Also on that same sprint site is a Palm Centro with that exact same screen...my guess is a graphic designer needed the Q2 to look like it was turned on like the other phones next to it, so they cut and pasted the screen from the Centro.

[Chris Ziegler @ Nov 10th 2007 6:40PM]

Yeah, that's a fair observation. Considering how little effort ACCESS appears to put into Garnet (not to say they should -- it's an ancient platform), it's easy to subconsciously associate it with Palm proper.

Chris

[Derek @ Nov 10th 2007 6:46PM]

Gotta agree with ekeown here - it's got to be a mistake from marketing. I highly doubt that Motorola would put out a Palm OS device - not to mention that the Q2 has a rectangular (ie not Palm OS square) screen.

[Jon @ Nov 11th 2007 2:57AM]

Though there is no doubt that this was a screw up, Palm OS does support various aspect ratios such as 320x480 screens (Palm T3 and various Sony Clies used this resolution).

[bombastinator @ Nov 11th 2007 5:00AM]

While the comment about the rectangluar screen is correct there are other technical reasons that Garnet would also not be put on such a phone.

There appears, for instance, to be some kind of limit on how many i/o devices garnet can deal with. It seems currently impossible to have a garnet device that can simultaneously have a phone and WiFi for instance. Evidence of this is largely based in palm offerings and certain code unearthed inside treo 650 roms by a guy called 'shadowmite'. There is also some evidence that Garnet has some problems with multiple device power management.

Garnet is not their newest offering however. While the centro appears to be running regular 5.4.9, the Folio was supposed to have run Palm's newest Linux based system, and there is no reason to believe that new systems should have any of Garnet's problems

[peter @ Nov 10th 2007 6:50PM]

I don't think that anything running the Palm OS has ever not had a touch screen, but none of the Moto Q's has ever had one, so I think that they would have to do some major modification, which doesn't seem likely, unless the new Q will have a touch screen, which would be great, but seems unlikely.

[Dae @ Nov 10th 2007 10:36PM]

What OS is on the Black berries? is that a PalmOS?

[ScOObyDoo @ Nov 10th 2007 6:53PM]

My money is on a lazy artist who just grabbed a screenshot from a Centro.

[Andrew @ Nov 10th 2007 7:05PM]

I completely agree. It looks like a semi-creative photoshop job. The glowing bow really doesn't seem to match with the screen... and unless this was pulled from a page or ad or something, I'd think the text would be aligned with the slant of the phone, if that makes any sense at all..

[Mile @ Nov 10th 2007 7:09PM]

Palm OS has nothing on WM6.

[JAmerican @ Nov 10th 2007 7:56PM]

This sadly is the truth. Multitasking is the future and many people who still use Palm OS deny that multitasking is important on a small screen and should be left to devs to implement.

[ABQNM @ Nov 10th 2007 7:22PM]

Well it still has the Windows Mobile Standard keys (home and back), not the palm keys. Someone in marketing will be visiting the unemployment line.

[moe @ Nov 10th 2007 8:01PM]

anything running microsoft os is better then a motorola running a microsoft os!

[Adam @ Nov 10th 2007 9:17PM]

Way to give it a chance!

[Will @ Nov 10th 2007 8:17PM]

The most obvious answers have already been given... aside from those above, Palm needs much more then killer hardware to peak the general public's interest again...

[Mr Yuk @ Nov 10th 2007 8:45PM]

It's time to move on... stick a fork in the Palm OS cause it's done. Shame, I've had a bunch from the original Palm Pro to the 700p. I'll never forget how cool the Palm V was when it hit the scene back in the day. Ahhh the memories.

-satisfied iPhone user

[Suraj @ Nov 10th 2007 9:09PM]

go to this link..

http://www.sprintspecialoffers.com/holiday/index.html#phone_15

all i did was click on the touch and change the url to make it "phone_15"

it has WM6

[complex @ Nov 10th 2007 9:12PM]

I like palm!

[Adam @ Nov 10th 2007 9:18PM]

I am super excited about this phone. I had the mogul and wasnt that impressed.

[Dr Buzz0 @ Nov 10th 2007 10:07PM]

If they did use it it would be Garnet OS, not PalmOS, becasue only Access has the licencing rights. I don't know why they would want to though. I could understand why they might go for the ALP though. It's compatable with garnet stuff and also has some nifty features

[Zale @ Nov 10th 2007 10:34PM]

I'll take mine with Android please....

[CUBSWILLWIN @ Nov 11th 2007 1:30AM]

Good call.

[Constable Odo @ Nov 10th 2007 10:38PM]

More Motorola shite. They are absolutely gone. They don't know which way to turn. It'll always be 180 degrees from the proper course.

[Culbeda @ Nov 10th 2007 11:03PM]

Testing comments

[Mindfield @ Nov 11th 2007 12:12AM]

It's a good thing I read this just now instead of when it was first posted, or I'd have had some serious wood for the possibility of a Palm-based Q until my hopes got dashed when the truth was revealed. Hell, I've still got a bit of chub just thinking about it on a conceptual level.

[crankbait @ Nov 11th 2007 1:23AM]

I just picked up a Q9h and think it is pretty damn nice. I need access to corporate Outlook servers and it does that very well. The keyboard is the best I have used on this type of device.

The reviews on the 9h have been positive around the net. Now if I could just find a case for it.....

[CUBSWILLWIN @ Nov 11th 2007 1:32AM]

No offence. but we're talking about photoshop and/or real palm OS on the motorola. Please don't explain your social life with a phone to us.

[David Jacobs @ Nov 11th 2007 9:38AM]

It's against the Palm corporate culture to produce anything this cool and thin. Fat round the bulbus is what we do people. Don't forget it.

It's never too early to sound the death knell for Palm. They're already dead, they just don't know it.

[Arjun @ Nov 11th 2007 2:25PM]

I'm sick of Motorola's crap on Sprint's network. Let's get some quality phones with good UIs.

[bobbyg @ Nov 13th 2007 7:49PM]

read the information for the phone in the ad and you will see that the Moto Q2 will be sporting Windows Mobil Media 6. By all means that pic was an error.

[Rubin C @ Nov 21st 2007 9:20AM]

IT WAS AN ERROR! I have the post corrected here, if you want to check it. http://www.sprintspecialoffers.com/holiday/index.html#phone_15