Unless you have been living under a rock for the last few days (and you care about mobility), I'm sure you've heard by now the rumors that Palm will be showing off its new Palm OS platform as well as a new device for the platform at CES 2009 in January. It's amazing to me, however, how many articles in the press are so skeptical of what Palm will (presumably) show off.
So let's start off with a few disclaimers. I don't own stock in Palm (I did many moons ago when it was spun off from 3Com). I have not been told what Palm plans to announce at CES and I have never seen any beta versions of "Nova," as it is being called. However, am I the only industry pundit who is actually EXCITED to see what they are going to show off?
I mean come on. You don't think the people at Palm know that they really have ONE last chance at making a comeback - a comeback to when they were THE innovators in the space? Why have there been countless delays in releasing this OS? This is not like when Apple screwed up HARD with OS 8 (code name Copland). I've said this before, and I will say it again....Palm has some pretty smart people in the management team and my guess is they realized what they had was not going to be good enough to compete against the BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Symbian and the new kids on the block: the iPhone and Android. Assuming "Nova" is shown at CES 2009, my sense is they are saying - "Bring It." No, this is not like the Foleo debacle.
I, for one, am excited. I want there to be another new kid on the block. I want competition to spur innovation across all major platforms. I want Palm to scare RIM, Microsoft, Apple, Google and Symbian. I want them to all be scared by each other because at the end of the day, it's the consumer who wins. And don't forget, those consumers work in enterprises which means enterprise mobility wins in the end.
So here's to Palm and whenever "Nova" is released. May it be an absolutely kick butt platform that can be used both for personal and enterprise use. Hopefully the new hardware will be cool too.
