I know this is a Wall Street Journal article that came out a few week ago now, but I had the opportunity to re-read it when a former colleague sent it to me recently. Call me crazy, but I do think Palm has a chance to bring back some of its former glory. How much of that will be in enterprise mobility remains to be seen.
It's pretty clear that Palm's new Centro (currently on Sprint) has gotten some pretty positive reviews. I have previously shared my thoughts on where I see the company headed. Hell, I even shared with you my not too subtle thoughts on what I thought about the Centro.
What I did like however about this WSJ article was the feel of HOPE...and believe me, hope matters. Jon Rubinstein has more than one major accomplishment under his belt, including that little MP3 player you may have heard of. A number of major changes are occurring at Palm - much of it based upon the admission that many a thing was broken at that once fabled company. A lot of changes are now happening at Palm, both from a product and personnel perspective. As I've talked about before, Palm is banking on its new Linux based operating system as a key component of its rebirth. That's great. What about its enterprise mobility initiatives that are currently based upon the Windows Mobile platform? The WSJ article suggests that Palm is considering its new OS as a panacea:
"But people familiar with his thinking say he is focused on a new Linux-based software platform that would create one set of applications for all Palm products."
I think that would be a terrible mistake. The battle for enteprise mobility is now a two-horse race between Microsoft and RIM. To date, Palm has been using the Windows Mobile platform for its "enterprise" grade devices. Switching from that strategy would be a tremendously counterproductive move in my opinion. In fact, I even told Palm directly that they had had tremendous strength when they made that selection. It would be a genuine shame if they were to diverge from that path.
So, let's call this one of my New Year's wishes for 2008. May Palm find its way this year with innovative device designs based upon a new and robust operating system. That said, may they recognize that one size does not fit all. Windows Mobile should remain the core of their enteprise mobility strategy.
