Dear Palm Developer,
I'm writing to you today because I'm concerned by the number of posts I've
read that suggest that Palm's support of Palm OS is either wavering or
short-lived. It is neither.
I thought I had made this perfectly clear with earlier statements, but let
me reiterate that our announcement on Sept. 26th that we'll broaden our line
of Treo smartphones to include ones made on the Windows Mobile platform is
all about growing the Treo market. We want to deliver the Palm experience on
Windows Mobile, strengthen our company's ability to deliver ever-more
capable solutions and answer current and potential customers' requests for a
Windows Mobile-based product from Palm. This is not a zero-sum game! This
market is in its infancy, and if we can expand our opportunities by being a
strong cross-platform provider of world-class smartphone products, then we
should do so. At the same time, this does not mean we need to walk away from
our existing products or technology partnerships, like Palm OS.
It's a fact that a large majority of businesses around the world use a
Microsoft-based infrastructure across their IT assets. And many of those
companies simply aren't open to products that use another OS. Some of our
carriers also have been asking for a Treo on this platform. Finally, many
end users in the world are attracted to the familiar Windows user interface.
We can either answer that marketplace demand with a Windows-based product,
or we can walk away from that business.
We have a rich product roadmap of Palm OS-based handheld computers, mobile
managers AND Treo smartphones that we intend to deliver. Our Palm OS
customer loyalty is extremely high, and we intend to continue to earn that
loyalty with great Palm OS-based products. We have sold more than 30 million
Palm OS-based products over the years, and it is not our intent to walk away
from such a strong and loyal user base. That's why in May we extended our
license for Palm OS, giving us the right to continue to make and market Palm
OS-based products until 2010.
So, I'd like to ask you to look at our Windows Mobile news as a way to
expand our market opportunity. We have every intention of continuing to
support our Palm OS developers and to encourage the expansion of the already
rich array of consumer and enterprise applications and peripherals for Palm
OS. We're pleased Access has initiated the purchase of PalmSource because we
believe Access has the resources to really invest in and develop Palm OS.
Net net, I believe that developing differentiated, software-rich products on
a range of industry-standard platforms puts us in a unique position with
customers and carriers and helps us expand the market opportunity for us,
the developer community and everyone involved in the smartphone category. I
hope you will agree.
Regards,
Ed Colligan
Palm, Inc. president and CEO
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