We all know how the company named Palm (now separated as palmOne and PalmSource) evolved. Stories been retold about how Jeff Hawkins was able to transform that wooden block into the device that revolutionized the handheld industry. Everything is now history. Palm Computing, USRobotics, 3Com and Handspring made its history (and are also history). After the Treo 600, what's left to be excited about? After the chip of wooden block (phenomenal hit of the late 90's) that we all know and loved, is there any more left to innovate?
What's Next?
Its almost been a year after the hype on the Treo 600. Many rumors have popped about the so-called Treo "Ace", but high res screen and Bluetooth alone doesn't excite me anymore. What's next on the pipeline? Jeff (Hawkins) kept on teasing us about the next generation of Treos, but there's no rumor or teaser about what it can do. The Palm community is already sick and tired of waiting. It seems that products like the Zire 72 doesn't make the market drool as much as how the Palm V did. Suddenly, all of the market's attention shifted to the iPod and its music. So palmOne, what's next?
The Zen Ingredient
What similarities does the iPod and Palm V have in common? First and foremost, they did their role in the best possible way they could. Palm V is to organize, while iPod is to music. No frills, all Zen. Both are using grayscale monochrome screen and carry a great conduit application for the desktop computer (referring to Palm Desktop and iTunes respectively).
You don't tend to admire the screen resolution beauty (of both your music player and organizer) too much. Beautiful screen distracts and lessen productivity. And so as trying to be what you're not made to be. Get the picture? I firmly believe that PalmSource (the OS maker) must put its focus more on what it was intended to do - which is to organize. They must improve and tightly integrate on Palm's PIM application more than spending time on how to multitask and do more multimedia hooplah (leave that to the over 300,000 more talented developers to create and develop on). I mean there's the Windows Mobile platform and the Linux mobile platform (who do all those multitasking stuff, but haven't perfectly outdone Palm on where it succeeded in the first place). Its the PIM stupid! The rest are merely add-ons (where you could live with or without).
The Pocket Computer Mantra
Why do people keep on pushing for the idea of shrinking their desktop PCs and lugging it around? I believe the idea is ok - only if it could simulate the bare essence of you using the desktop (screen size, power and user interface). That may not come as today's pocket device yet, but I imagine it to be more of a wearable device (separate viewing screen, CPU and interface). That's the direction where the Pocket PC platform have gone but in the form of a Palm device - and this is where they failed. The future of handhelds might take this route also, but for now it would still be a long shot.
So what is it exactly gonna happen next? I still don't have any idea. One thing's for sure (may not be palmOne or Apple but), another Zen device will prevail. ;-)
W
