Palm's done with PalmOS, plans to get Pre on other carriers in 2010, speaks to patent issues

In a talk with investors Palm CEO Ed Colligan dropped a whole ton of previously undisclosed facts about Palm and the Pre. First off, he mentioned that other than the Centro making its way to other carriers, there will be no more PalmOS devices from Palm; they're concentrating completely on webOS and Windows Mobile. They also clarified that they have partnerships with carriers in Canada, Latin America and Europe for the Pre, and that they plan on expanding in the US to carriers outside of Sprint in 2010. As far as patents go, Palm doesn't sound too worried, citing 15 years of patents in the bank, a desire to respect intellectual property, and the fact that no action has taken place between Palm and Apple in that department.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 11th 2009 7:42PM]

Please Palm release this on AT&T please!

[Phenoum Posted Feb 13th 2009 2:36AM]

Whats the matter? stuck on a 2 yr contract with your iPhone? :o

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 11th 2009 2:40PM]

Ah... greyscale LCD is still sexy, efficient and practical too in many applications.

[ALCie Posted Feb 11th 2009 2:47PM]

Pre in Canada? Sprint is a CDMA carrier, correct? So if we get the same one as Sprint then it will be either Bell or Telus getting it. I havent heard anything within Bell... Or maybe we will be getting the GSM version they are getting in Europe.

Inside info anyone?

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 22nd 2009 3:04AM]

We'll either get the GSM version on Rogers or the CDMA version on Telus.

Neither Bell, nor Fido will be able to afford it. But by then, Telus will supposedly be a GSM provider.. soo.. I'm guessing we'll get the GSM version, that could also be another reason why we won't see it for another whole year.

[Joshs Red Pants Posted Feb 11th 2009 9:49PM]

the read link seemed to indicate that it would be coming to Bell. I'm not super excited (always been a Rogers GSM guy), but I'll probably do the switch and put my Treo 650 to rest.

[sklp Posted Feb 11th 2009 2:59PM]

I always thought Palm would include a POS compatibility layer in their new devices. It's a little disappointing, there are a lot of great apps written for the platform.

Anyone has any news about that Edelweiss phone or the ALP??

Cheers

[jonyah Posted Feb 11th 2009 3:22PM]

in the sdk palm is releasing there's going to be a utility to convert palm os apps to web os.

[Greg01 Posted Feb 11th 2009 5:06PM]

No, there's going to be ways to access .pdb files. The old applications won't run unless someone creates an emulator, and for that they're going to need better access to the OS than JavaScript and HTML.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 11th 2009 3:22PM]

I do not think that changing of an os can pull palm out of the death spiral.

[eb Posted Feb 13th 2009 2:18PM]

i hope i comes for Verizon by the time my contract is up

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 11th 2009 3:35PM]

The Pre won't be on other carriers, till 2010? Did I get that right?

??

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 11th 2009 3:49PM]

It seems rather sad that Apple dislikes competition.

[Rob Posted Feb 11th 2009 4:05PM]

Even though I'm a blackberry user now and haven't used any Palm devices in years, I almost got choked up seeing that picture on the left of the original USR Palm Pilot which I still have. Brings back memories of the good old days when things were so basic and sadly an end of an era for Palm. RIP indeed.

[fastm3driver Posted Feb 11th 2009 4:43PM]

So is Palm OS going open source? I don't want my almost 5 year old ique to die. It's still the smallest useful GPS. I have a iphone and it feels like a joke / toy in this area compared to this 6 year old device!

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 17th 2009 4:52PM]

*Sigh* Why is Palm ALWAYS the last one to show up at a party????

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 11th 2009 4:57PM]

RIP HotSync. Scratch that... burn in hell you software abomination!

[Gibson Posted Feb 11th 2009 5:11PM]

I, for one, welcome our palmtop overlords.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 11th 2009 5:15PM]

phhhbbb - whatever - it's no Pomegranate NS08

-seriously - I've had 3 Palms and 1 Treo over the years and before the Pre was announced I was thinking of buying a new-old-stock 755p on E-bay just to keep myself going for a couple more years.....I will be pissed if Apple manuvers to impede the Pre.

[tenshisan Posted Feb 11th 2009 5:16PM]

HA!, WebOS = balls in Spanish (huevos)....

[superhobo Posted Feb 11th 2009 6:12PM]

RIP Palm OS :(

[FILA Posted Feb 11th 2009 6:57PM]

I sure do miss the good ol days

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 11th 2009 10:07PM]

I've used PalmOS.... then I tried WinCE and three months later I gave away my brand new iPaq and went back to the old Palm. I've tried TREO (but the phone part sucks). So I've tried Symbian (Nokia E71). After all this, I think I am going to take my old Tungsten T5 and just glue it to the back of some simple phone .... and make my own smart phone. Why can't Palm simply take T5 and add a phone component to it? PalmOS is simple, is fast, and just works. I hope WebOS can live up to it's predecessor's legacy.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 12th 2009 3:09AM]

Apple should shut up seriously... they've stepped on a few patents when they created the iPhone, including Sony Ericsson's accelerometer patent.

[Galley Posted Feb 12th 2009 9:07AM]

Does this mean the LifeDrive that's been sitting in my drawer for two years is now a collector's item?

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 12th 2009 10:21AM]

Well I guess I am stuck with the POS storm. I held out for Palm for so long and then the let me down with this garbage. Diversity in Mobile OS was always one of my favorite aspects. I enjoyed learning new interfaces and seeing the benefits from each. Now we are more and more being shoved into conforming to just an OS or two. Damn Verizon for having awesome services. They clearly have the worst phone selection

[keithwwalker Posted Feb 12th 2009 7:37PM]

Palm OS won't go open source or release the OS to the public.

They have left the Palm OS DNA to Access.co.jp who has the rights to 'Garnet':
http://www.access-company.com/products/platforms/garnet/index.html

Access also has their Linux platform that will run the old Palm OS programs. It will live on...

[keithwwalker Posted Feb 12th 2009 8:31PM]

more info
http://alp.access-company.com/files/GarnetVM_whitepaper.pdf

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 16th 2009 2:14AM]

I'm leaving Verizon for this phone...

[LogMonkey Posted Mar 18th 2009 3:01AM]

My affection for Palm OS arrived too late in life. I just bought a Centro last year after ditching my sexy (at the time) but clunky HTC slider with WinMO. Centro is 10 times the Apache was, but sadly surfing the web on Palm (and WinMo) sucks. I'll keep it until I can get my hands on something better.

[(Unverified) Posted May 5th 2009 4:31AM]

This just gives time for competitors to catch up. Apple is rumoring a new iPhone later this year and BB is getting Gemini and Storm2, touchscreen bold.We don't need to wait till 2010 and we could try to find tools from http://www.copy-dvd.org, maybe you won't find what you need but why not try?

[(Unverified) Posted May 7th 2009 2:33AM]

I enjoyed learning new interfaces and seeing the benefits from each, http://www.vcao.net So much for having that same "Exclusive To Carrier" like that At&T has.