Palm's plans to release their new Palm OS II devices in early 2009 are on schedule. Last fall, Palm, Inc.'s new Chairman said his company will release smartphones running a new Linux-based version of the Palm OS in 2009. Last week, a Palm executive told Brighthand that the company is still on track to have the first model out early next year.
According to Stephane Maes, VP Smartphone Product Marketing, Palm expects to finish work on this operating system late in 2008, and around that same time will begin distributing the tools developers need to create applications, or check compatibility of their current ones, for this new operating system. Naturally, those who are writing the software that will be bundled with the first model will get access to the SDKs well before the general public.
Palm plans to have the first devices running this operating system out early in 2009. Maes says that wireless carriers are already expressing strong interest in Palm OS II -- though he didn't call it that. According to rumor, the internal code-name for this platform is "Nova," but Palm itself hasn't revealed the official name.
What any of the Palm OS II models will look like has not yet been revealed to the public, though reports have indicated that Palm is looking at making Treos with new formfactors.
What about 2008?
With Palm OS II devices not expected for another year, in the mean time, Palm is going to continue to offer models running the current version of the Palm OS, as well as ones based on Windows Mobile.
Palm's Maes was willing to say that the Centro will be at the heart of his company's consumer product line for much of this year, but wouldn't go into any additional details. This Palm OS-based smartphone is rumored to be coming to other telecom's besides Sprint in the next few weeks.
Early last week, many of the details on a pair of new Windows Mobile Treos leaked out of Vodafone. Not surprisingly, Maes declined to comment on these. He did say, however, that Palm intends to release several Windows Mobile-based smartphones this year.
