No more Windows Mobile phones from Palm

No more Windows Mobile phones from Palm
Nancy Gohring 17.09.2009 kl 22:40 | IDG News Service


Palm said it will stop developing new phones running Windows Mobile software, instead focusing future development on its new WebOS operating system.

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In the future, Palm plans to focus solely on WebOS rather than developing phones that run operating systems from other vendors like Microsoft. "While there are still Centros and Treos moving through the channel, our future engineering efforts are based around WebOS," Rubinstein said. The Centro runs Palm OS, Palm's previous operating system, and the Treo runs Windows.

The appeal of the Pre to business customers--a segment that Windows has traditionally appealed to--may have helped Palm decide to focus on its own phones and drop Windows. "We found early on that demand [from businesses] was stronger than expected," Rubinstein said. As a result, Palm has accelerated updates to the WebOS platform, such as improved Exchange security policies, that business users want, he said.

Though Palm probably did not make up a major share of Windows sales, the news is probably a blow to Microsoft, which has struggled to keep up in an increasingly competitive mobile market. Updated Windows phones running version 6.5 will come in early October, but the more significant upgrade--the apparent response to the launch of the iPhone two years ago--won't arrive until next year.

"Palm has been and remains a great partner to Microsoft, and they are one of the many companies we work with to deliver a compelling range of mobile offerings," a Microsoft spokesman said in a statement.


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Wirelessly posted (Treo Pro: Palm850/v0100 Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows CE; IEMobile 7.11))

It should not come as a surprise. I along with many loyal Palm users, migrated to WM only because of the Treos, which were not standard HTC devices but had many Palm tweaks incorporated.

I see this as an excellent & timely shift in strategy. I am very happy with my Treo Pro, but I am quite sure that there will be an appropriate GSM Palm Web OS device in my future.