No New Palm Handheld PDAs

(Here's a blog post about Palm's upcoming announcement. BTW, Palm's CEO is Ed Colligan, not "Holligan". Presumably someone at InformationWeek will notice and fix this.)


Can A Super 'Nova' Save Palm?
InformationWeek
Posted by Eric Zeman, Jan 5, 2009 10:20 AM

Palm's CES press conference is mere days away. Before Palm CEO Ed Holligan has a chance to tell us what the company is up to, the Internet has coughed up some details and a rough sketch of the new smartphone from Palm.

Thursday is Palm's do-or-die moment. Its press conference, at 11 a.m. PST / 2 p.m. EST, is rumored to be the event where Palm will introduce not only its new mobile platform, but also some new hardware based on that platform.

The fellows over at CrunchGear say a solid source has given them the scoop on the goods. Site editor John Biggs writes, "We have information from a trusted source that the latest Palm smartphone running the Nova operating system will be launched Thursday. The new phone will have a full QWERTY keyboard that will slide down under a portrait-oriented touchscreen... The new operating system is described as 'amazing' and there will be a full software bazaar on launch. It will have media playback functions along with standard Palm calendar, email, and contact functionality. As expected, the phone is described as 'iPhone-like' and will probably be sourced by HTC like the Palm Pro."

Palm's Nova operating system needs to be amazing. Anything less than that will be met with disappointment. Palm has been working on the OS for years, and has delayed it multiple times. Competitors Apple,Nokia (NYSE: NOK), RIM (NSDQ: RIMM), and others have stepped up their game and offered better smartphone software and hardware, relegating Palm to has-been status.

Whether or not the source cited by CrunchGear is in the know, who is to say. You can see a mock-up of the device here. Quite honestly, I hope Palm shows off more than one phone on Thursday. In fact, I hope Palm blows everyone away.

We'll find out shortly.

Original


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(Here's the Crunchgear post referred to by InformationWeek. The "mock-up" is a not very detailed drawing.)


Exclusive: New Palm phone to have slide-down keyboard, large touchscreen
Crunchgear
by John Biggs on January 4, 2009


We have information from a trusted source that the latest Palm smartphone running the Nova operating system will be launched Thursday. The new phone will have a full QWERTY keyboard that will slide down under a portrait-oriented touchscreen. We’ll have a mock-up shortly.

The new operating system is described as “amazing” and there will be a full software bazaar on launch. It will have media playback functions along with standard Palm calendar, email, and contact functionality.

As expected, the phone is described as “iPhone-like” and will probably be sourced by HTC like the Palm Pro. The official Palm announcement should happen this Thursday at CES.




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Palm Retail Roundup 5 - Handhelds Disappearing Fast

Posted By: Kris Keilhack on Wednesday, January 07, 2009 9:38:52 AM
Palm InfoCenter

In what is likely going to be the fifth and final entry in my long-running PIC series chronicling the gradual decline of Palm's retail handheld presence, I am sad but unsurprised to report that Palm handhelds are all but extinct from retail shelves. Indeed, these aging devices are now starting to become scarce online even from top-tier e-tailers, a sure sign of impending doom.

Alongside the new year and hopefully a new Palm OS, Palm launched a refreshed Palm.com website on Monday that quite dramatically shoved all of their three remaining handhelds out of the spotlight. Also affected were all of Palm's older smartphones, with only the Treo Pro, 800w and Centro remaining as active models.

A random sampling of brick and mortar and web-based retailers over the past week has revealed that TX, E2, and especially the Z22 look set to finally proceed into oblivion in the sad culmination to the era of the classic PDA.

More...



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