Mr. Jobs has just rammed his hummer through the gates of technology and changed all of the rules. - LDDThere are few words to describe today's announcement, but my jaw almost fell to the ground when I saw the Apple iPhone. I stood in awe, as did my coworkers, feeling that we have just witnessed something akin to the changing of an era.
With one presentation, Steve Jobs placed the fear of tech into the hearts of just about every cell phone carrier and maker. But the one that we all worried about was Palm!
Today, Palm's stock suffered a major percentage decline on the announcement. RIMM shares also lost muster. However, is there any doubt that Palm had a great advantage that one can only feel has been squandered in a boardroom debacle! Can one have any doubts that the real Palm Software purchaser should have been Nokia?
I grew excited many months ago when Access purchased the software division of Palm. I thought that Linux would be the saving grace for Palm. However, one year later, there is no device running this. There is, and probably will be, no Lifedrive 2. Instead, as expected, Palm chose to go the route of most income, discarding innovation and staying safe with the Treo smartphones. As they announced at an analyst meeting, they would concentrate on this sector of the market. And so they have. However, they decided to concentrate on the business consumer and to forget about the average Joe. Certainly, the advent of the Treo 680 is possibly an appeasement. But what advantage has any of this served?
In the high end market, the area that is the most coveted by Palm, they are about to receive the greatest competition from a company that was thought to be dead in 1997 - Apple. This company has found a way to work around Telcos dictating the rules of the game. Despite a full version of the product not being available at the present time, one can only picture the quality and efficiency that this device will produce.
But let's not digress. The real problem for Palm is not just the product lineup, which for now is still good, but not revolutionary. The true problem here was Palm's insistence on keeping GARNET, the operating system also known as OS 5. It is this antedeluvian OS that has kept Palm safe and also held them back! They sold the software division to ACCESS, only to buy back OS 5 !!!! Am I confused? While they sputtered around doing these interwoven business plays, Steve Jobs and Co. moved right in, stunning not only Palm, but the entire industry!
If anyone ever doubted what you could do with Linux, you can look no further than the Stevie J. presentation today. OS X, the Mac operating system is basically Unix in disguise. It's really a proprietary version of Unix that excels in multitasking, even with the most complex of tasks. Many today were stunned when Steve Jobs announced that the iPhone will be running OS X. I say to those in the know, why are you surprised? Haven't many of you known for some time that Linux (or Unix) carries a small footprint? It has amazing network operability and with the addition of NeXT, the graphics environment is icing on the cake.
From Mr. Jobs presentation, the device can multitask and do graphics, things that we have been craving for in the Palm world. Things that we thought we would receive some time last year or early this year. Multitasking with Linux should have been developed by Palm first! I was expecting to see Palm appear confidently with the must-have device of the year. Instead, Mr. Jobs has just rammed his hummer through the gates of technology and changed all of the rules.
What I fear now is the obvious inroad that will be made by Apple in this space. Even if Palm comes out with a device that can do everything, there will be a lot of yawning because of the keyboard or because it does not multitask or because it does not do bluetooth with 802.11.... And for those of you who think that the Apple phone is just a telephone with an iPod, perhaps you missed the real meaning of having OS X on the device. Just two weeks ago, Apple announced that they will be including an updated version of Dashboard in OS X 10.4.9, aka Leopard - the next operating system for the Mac. This update will include software to MAKE WIDGETS. Thus, software developers will be able to make small apps to run as widgets in OS X on the Mac and automatically transfer those apps to the iPhone. Essentially, this device is no longer just a telephone, but a special type of Smart Phone with access to Apps in the form of widgets. Essentially, if you can upload widgets to the device, you can probably program it, meaning that this may in fact be the early reentrance of Apple into the PDA market (Or as I told a friend this morning, Apple's Newton has become Copernicus).
Again, Apples are in bloom and it's time for Palm to start moving. The rules of the game just changed dramatically and Palm can no longer rely on its old technology to get through.
LDD.
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