Palm developing a new Linux PalmOS from scratch?

So David Beers at PikeSoft claims to have it on authority (from an analyst -- ahem!) that Palm itself may be planning the "true" successor to the PalmOS, Access be damned. A little backgrounder for those who've drifted: after PalmOne bought the Palm name and PalmSource sold to Access, the PalmOS was renamed to ALP (Access Linux Platform), and we've been expecting it to primarily take hold in the Asian market, while PalmOS 5 (Garnet) ages ungracefully and eventually withers away in the US. So the idea that Palm would double back and resurrect the PalmOS with a new Linux-based version is by no means out of the question -- in fact, it's something we predicted might happen last year. And according to Beers, their Palm insider says they have a prototype of the new Linux OS on a Treo 650, and that the "new operating system will be introduced in 2007." As much as we'd like to believe Palm would pull a rabbit out of their hat with this one and give us the completely rebuilt, completely redesigned PalmOS to end all PalmOSs, we have to keep in mind that it takes years to build a robust smartphone operating system, and even if they started last year immediately after buying the Palm name, 2007 still seems like an incredibly aggressive launch date. Make no mistake about it, though, Palm developing a new PalmOS from scratch? We're all about it.

[Via Gadgets On The Go]