MacOS or PalmOS on future PDA?

[BlingBling 3k12]

"In February 1998 Apple officially discontinued the Newton project. Although some people insisted that this was the revenge of Steve Jobs for being kicked out of Apple in 1985 by killing Sculley's favorite project, the real reason was that Apple could not afford the Newton project at that time. Further Jobs felt that it was more sensible to have a PDA that would run the MacOS rather than the NewtonOS.

After this event rumors of new Apple PDAs were fequently discussed in press. In late 1999 Apple offered 3Com a takeover. 3Com's stockholders declined, but Apple was able to aquire a licence for producing PDAs with the PalmOS."

Now... by reading that... it would seem that Apple has in-development a PDA... but it says "Apple was able to aquire a license for producing PDAs with the PalmOS."

Wouldn't that just sound like Apple would be putting Palm on their own PDAs?

WOULDN'T YOU WANT MAC OS X FOR (INSERT PRODUCT NAME HERE) INSTEAD OF PALM?!

still, i'm confused

(and i got that quote from TheAppleMuseum.com)

[AdmiralAK]

The PalmOS is old, and it cant cope with the new offerings of the PocketPC and LinuxPDA (sharp) crowd as well as the up and coming Symbian OS for PocketPC devices.

The palm OS needs to be writen from teh ground up, and use a different hardware specs that what its currently on. This was set in motion before or on the time that Palm inc bought off all intellectual holdings of Be inc. They will use BeOS and BeIA to make their new (palm OS 5) a new, better, media oriented OS.

If apple buys palm off they also have BeOS in their arsenal. I doubt that apple will buy palm now since if they buy them now, the general palm consumer will think that apple bought off palm to kill the palm OS and thus force them to buy another machine. Let palm kill off the current palm OS and then let apple buy em off if they want to do so.

[MacSub]

Better yet, if Apple did buy Palm soon and introduce a new OS and Apple PDA (that was just outragous) then people would just woo over it and pray that it was windows compatable...and just for sake of smooth transitions keep the Palm brand name with a OSX-Aqua-Palm-OS! Give it wireless, USB, Firewire everyting that PocketPCs have and more! Apple must make this move. It is critical in the branding marketing pda market and PC market. We are forgetting about the Palm-Desktop too, that would change into something more like the iTunes/iPod thing. Really cool. Hot sync over firewire with a large 5 gig drive OOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHH....The iPod could be so much more!

[fryke]

Yet somehow Steve/Apple thinks it shouldn't be. And I can tell you even. Ain't that great?

The difference is geek appeal vs. mass appeal.

The iPod has a very clear use. And for that use - playing music - it is an almost perfect machine, much better than the competition, anyway.

an iPad (or whatever) would have had more impact press-wise, but no clear use. Geeks (in the Mac community) would have wanted such a beast. Windows users? They like Pocket PCs. And then there's the thriving Palm (& clones) industry. Sony makes great PDAs, I got one.

Apple make a PDA? Perhaps. But the iPod was the better idea.

[MacSub]

Perhaps...

I own a palm...its really pathetic! I can see how the clones are much better (sony's!) however I have a friend that has just bought a pocketpc, WOW now that thing is cool, its so much better than anything thats currently out, and I am a avid protester of M$ software, but geez they did a good job here. I think if Apple is going to keep a market, they have the opportunity here with palm...They buy them out, mass market a new PDA with tremendous new features never before seen on a PDA (similar to the effect of the iPod) and also allow clones to be build, so that they keep the market share over PocketPC. Its all about branding, Palm has done it already for Apple, all they have to do now is step in!

[chevy]

Are you sure you really know what the iPod can do ?

Why use a miniature hard disc with a screen, a firewire interface and 12 hours autonomy only for music ?

[AdmiralAK]

because you can store a heck of a lot of music on it

I got my iPaq 3870 yesterday. I still havent finished playing around with it. I used to have a palm (some gave it to me) and I gave it away coz it sucked lol. M$ did do something partially right with the PocketPC OS. Its not perfect and I cant think of several things fixed, but is one nice beauty...not if only there were a QT player on it


Admiral

[vanguard]

Hmm, I have a palm pilot and I love it. I carry it all the time (it's small enough to do that) and it's practically a brain extension for me.

The poster above said something about the iPod having a clear purpose and therefore a greater chance of market success. I'd say the same thing about the palm versus the PocketPC.

However, that's changing. If I were in the market for a PDA now I'd look hard at the msft offering. It has all the features I really want and palm has been standing still for years.